Telemedicine follow-up for pre-malignant and malignant glottic lesions: a randomised controlled trial study protocol comparing care close to home versus standard of care.

Background And Purpose: In the Netherlands, care for head and neck cancer (HNC) is centralised in head and neck oncology centres (HNOCs). Follow-up after treatment requires frequent visits that can burden patients and providers. Telemedicine, through remote evaluation of laryngopharyngoscopy videos recorded at local hospitals, may offer a feasible alternative.

Long-term clinical control in chronic rhinosinusitis: Outcomes more than five years after surgery.

Purpose: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a common chronic and disabling disease with a high socioeconomic burden. The primary goal of treatment is improving health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and maintaining clinical control. The aim of this study was to assess clinical control in CRS patients more than 5 years after endoscopic endonasal surgery (EES).

Hospital-level variation in resection margins after oral cavity cancer surgery and associated survival outcomes.

The main goal of surgery for oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is to obtain adequate resection margins as inadequate margins are associated with a worse prognosis and treatment intensification. However, reported rates of inadequate resections vary from 30%-85%. Clinical auditing is an upcoming tool to improve margin status.

The impact of a patient decision aid for patients with advanced laryngeal carcinoma - a multicenter study.

Purpose: Patients with advanced larynx cancer face challenging treatment decisions. To address this, we developed and tested a patient decision aid (PDA), aiming to reduce decisional conflict (DC), and enhance knowledge and perceived shared decision-making (SDM).

Methods: In this multicenter study (ClinicalTrials.

Textbook Outcome After Oral Cancer Surgery as a Composite Measure for Survival and Quality-of-Care Evaluation.

Objective: To enhance survival outcomes for oral cavity cancer (OCC) surgery, a composite measure has been developed: "textbook outcome" (TO). Three studies have reported on this concept in OCC, but the need for population-level results remains. This study investigates OCC surgery, focusing on survival and hospital-level results.

Intra-operative laser angiography measurement of skin perfusion using indocyanine green dye in surgical treatment of laryngeal cancer: A feasibility study.

Background: Total laryngectomy (TL) is one of the primary or salvage treatment options for the treatment of laryngeal cancer. After salvage TL (STL), delayed wound healing, due to poor tissue perfusion and hypoxia is frequent. This study aimed to assess whether measurement of skin perfusion using intra-operative indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence laser angiography is feasible in patients undergoing total laryngectomy and/or neck dissection for laryngeal cancer.

Protective Effect of Selegiline (R-deprenyl) in Aminoglycoside-Induced Hearing Loss.

Aminoglycoside antibiotics remain indispensable despite their ototoxicity. Like other sensorineural forms, aminoglycoside-induced hearing loss (AGIHL) has no effective pharmacotherapy. Oxidative stress, apoptosis, excitotoxicity and inflammation are key pathological factors of the disease.

The Association Between Clinical Outcome and Expression of DNMT1, 3A, and 3B in Locally Advanced Laryngeal Carcinomas Treated by Definitive Radiotherapy.

: This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic significance of DNA methyltransferases (DNMTs) expression, including DNMT1, DNMT3A, and DNMT3B, in assessing the risk of locoregional recurrence after radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC), in order to optimize treatment decision making. : A retrospective analysis was performed on pre-treatment biopsy tissues and clinical data from 58 patients with locally advanced LSCC (stages T3-T4, M0) treated with primary curative radiotherapy. DNMT expression was assessed through immunohistochemistry, and Cox regression analysis was applied to examine associations between methylation marker expression, demographic and clinical data, and both locoregional recurrence and disease-specific mortality.

Exploring the state of shared decision-making in head and neck oncology: Assessing treatment communication.

Objective: To explore the state of shared decision-making (SDM) in head and neck (HN) oncology by investigating the extent to which SDM is currently employed by HN surgeons and how the perceived levels of SDM relate to the observed levels of SDM. Additionally, surgeon and patient perspectives on patient involvement in SDM and potential associations with observed levels of SDM were explored.

Methods: Perceived level of SDM and patient involvement were measured by SDM-Q-9/SDM-Q-Doc resp.

Comparison of White Light With Narrow Band Imaging Using Flexible Laryngoscopy for the Detection of Local Recurrences After (Chemo)Radiation for Pharyngeal or Laryngeal Cancer: A Randomised Controlled Trial.

Objectives: Early detection of local recurrences in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is crucial for long-term survival. Aim of this study was to compare white light (WL) imaging with narrow band imaging (NBI) during flexible laryngoscopy for detection of local recurrences and evaluate the effects on clinical outcome in patients with HNSCC treated with radiotherapy ± chemotherapy ((C)RT).

Design: Prospective randomised controlled trial.

Surgical Complications for Oral Cavity Cancer: Evaluating Hospital Performance.

Objective: Complications of oral cavity cancer (OCC) surgery have an impact on the quality of life. Therefore, evaluating hospital performance on complication rates can help identify best practices for improving the quality of OCC care. As patient and tumor characteristics also impact hospital results, case-mix adjustment should be considered to provide a valid hospital comparison.

Unveiling the relation between swallowing muscle mass and skeletal muscle mass in head and neck cancer patients.

Purpose: Sarcopenia, characterized by loss of skeletal muscle mass (SMM) and strength, often leads to dysphagia in the elderly. This condition can also worsen treatment outcomes in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients, who are susceptible to swallowing difficulties. This study aimed to establish the correlation between swallowing muscle mass (SwMM) and SMM in HNC patients.

Impact of Frailty on Post-Treatment Dysphagia in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer.

In the rising and frail head and neck cancer (HNC) population, geriatric assessments are crucial. Frail HNC patients often experience dysphagia. The coexistence of dysphagia and frailty presents complex health challenges, however, there is limited evidence on the prognostic value of frailty on post-treatment dysphagia.

Diagnosis of laryngopharyngeal carcinoma through office-based flexible laryngoscopy as a reliable alternative for biopsies under general anesthesia: Faster diagnostics with equal oncological outcome.

Purpose: Diagnostic endoscopy with biopsy under general anesthesia (DE-GA) is still considered as the established standard to assess laryngopharyngeal cancer patients. Office-based flexible laryngoscopic biopsy (FLB) offers an alternative, but the effect on oncological outcome remains uncertain. Therefore, the diagnostic process and survival of patients undergoing FLB, compared to those undergoing DE-GA were evaluated.

A new computed tomography-based approach to quantify swallowing muscle volume by measuring tongue muscle area in a single slice.

Background: Measuring the swallowing muscle mass with volume measurements is complex and time intensive; therefore, it is not used in clinical practice. However, it can be clinically relevant, for instance, in the case of sarcopenic dysphagia. The aim of the study was to develop a feasible and clinically applicable method to measure swallowing muscle mass.

Addition of tumor microenvironment immune cell composition to improve the performance of a predictive model for oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Background: Conventional clinicopathological characteristics insufficiently predict prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). We aimed to assess the added predictive value of tumor microenvironment immune cell composition (TMICC) in addition to conventional clinicopathological characteristics.

Methods: Primary tumor samples of 290 OSCC patients were immunohistochemically stained for CD4, CD8, CD20, CD68, CD163, CD57, FoxP3 and Programmed cell Death Ligand 1.

Predictors for Success and Failure in Transoral Robotic Surgery-A Retrospective Study in the North of the Netherlands.

Transoral Robotic Surgery (TORS) is utilized for treating various malignancies, such as early-stage oropharyngeal cancer and lymph node metastasis of an unknown primary tumor (CUP), and also benign conditions, like obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and chronic lingual tonsillitis. However, the success and failure of TORS have not been analyzed to date. In this retrospective observational multicenter cohort study, we evaluated patients treated with TORS using the da Vinci surgical system.

Decisional Conflict and Decision Regret in Head and Neck Oncology: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Importance: Head and neck cancer (HNC) often requires treatment with a major impact on quality of life. Treatment decision-making is often challenging, as it involves balancing survival against the preservation of quality of life and choosing among treatments with comparable outcomes but variation in morbidity and adverse events; consequently, the potential for decisional conflict (DC) and decision regret (DR) is high.

Objectives: To summarize the literature on DC and DR in HNC, to give an overview of its prevalence and extent, and to advise on clinical practice and future research.

Head and neck cancer patients with geriatric deficits are more often non-responders and lost from follow-up in quality of life studies.

Objectives: To identify associations between frailty and non-response to follow-up questionnaires, in a longitudinal head and neck cancer (HNC) study with patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).

Materials And Methods: Patients referred with HNC were included in OncoLifeS, a prospective data-biobank, underwent Geriatric Assessment (GA) and frailty screening ahead of treatment, and were followed up at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months after treatment using the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 and Head and Neck 35. Statistical analysis for factors associated with non-response was done using Generalized Linear Mixed Models.

Narrow band imaging reveals field cancerisation undetected by conventional white light: Optical diagnosis versus histopathology.

Objective: To assess whether narrow band imaging (NBI) detects fields of cancerisation around suspicious lesions in the upper aerodigestive tract, which were undetected by white light imaging (WLI).

Methods: In 96 patients with laryngeal and pharyngeal lesions suspicious for malignancy, 206 biopsies were taken during laryngoscopy: 96 biopsies of suspicious lesions detected by both WLI and NBI (WLI+/NBI+), 60 biopsies adjacent mucosa only suspicious with NBI (WLI-/NBI+), and 46 biopsies of NBI and WLI unsuspicious mucosa (WLI-/NBI-) as negative controls. Optical diagnosis according to the Ni-classification was compared with histopathology.

Decisional Conflict in Patients with Advanced Laryngeal Carcinoma: A Multicenter Study.

Objectives: Decision-making for patients with a locally advanced laryngeal carcinoma (T3 and T4) is challenging due to the treatment choice between organ preservation and laryngectomy, both with different and high impact on function and quality of life (QoL). The complexity of these treatment decisions and their possible consequences might lead to decisional conflict (DC). This study aimed to explore the level of DC in locally advanced laryngeal carcinoma patients facing curative decision-making, and to identify possible associated factors.

Oncological and functional outcomes in T3 and T4 laryngeal cancer patients: choice for larynx preservation or total laryngectomy based on expected laryngeal function.

Objective: To determine oncological and functional outcomes in patients with T3 and T4 laryngeal carcinoma, in which choice of treatment was based on expected laryngeal function and not T classification.

Methods: Oncological outcomes (disease-specific survival and overall survival) as well as functional outcomes (larynx preservation and functional larynx preservation) were analysed.

Results: In 130 T3 and 59 T4 patients, there was no difference in disease-specific survival or overall survival rates after radiotherapy (RT) (107 patients), chemoradiotherapy (36 patients) and total laryngectomy (46 patients).

The development of a decision aid for patients with operable oropharyngeal carcinoma in the Netherlands - A mixed methods study.

Objective: The aim of this project is to create an interactive online patient decision aid (PDA) for oropharyngeal cancer (OPSCC) patients, eligible for transoral (robotic) surgery with an ultimate goal to assist both physicians and patients in making treatment choices.

Materials And Methods: Following the International Patient Decision Aid Standards, a mixed-methods approach was employed. The study involved semi-structured in-depth interviews with patients and physicians, thinking-out-loud sessions, and study-specific questionnaires.

The influence of clinical experience on reliable evaluation of pharyngeal and laryngeal lesions: comparison of high-definition laryngoscopy using narrow band imaging with fibre-optic laryngoscopy.

Background: Fibre-optic laryngoscopy is still widely used in daily clinical practice; however, high-definition laryngoscopy using narrow band imaging could be more reliable in characterising pharyngeal and laryngeal lesions.

Methods: Endoscopic videos were assessed in a tertiary referral hospital by 12 observers with different levels of clinical experience. Thirty pairs of high-definition laryngoscopy with narrow band imaging and fibre-optic laryngoscopy videos were judged twice, with an interval of two to four weeks, in a random order.

The acceptance and voice quality of a new voice prosthesis 'Vega High performance' - a feasibility study.

Background: The Provox Vega High Performance (PVHP) is a newly developed voice prosthesis (VP) with an aim to achieve a longer and more predictable lifetime.

Objectives: This feasibility study aims to assess patient acceptance of the PVHP VP, evaluate adverse events, voice quality, and device lifetime.

Methods: Laryngectomized patients previously using a Provox Vega or ActiValve Light were included.