Future directions and treatment strategies for head and neck squamous cell carcinomas.

ABSTRACT: Head and neck cancer is a devastating disease that afflicts many individuals worldwide. Conventional therapies are successful in only a limited subgroup and often leave the patient with disfigurement and long lasting adverse effects on normal physiologic functions. The field is in dire need of new therapies. Oncolytic viral as well as targeted therapies have shown some success in other malignancies and are attractive for the treatment of head and neck cancer. Recently, it has been shown that a subset of head and neck cancers is human papillomavirus (HPV) positive and that this subset of cancers is biologically distinct and more sensitive to chemoradiation therapies although the underlying mechanism is unclear. However, chemoresistance remains a general problem. One candidate mediator of th

SUBMITTER: Wise-Draper TM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3423575 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature