Head & Neck Cancer:  A Patient Education Day
" Survivorship: Living With, Through and Beyond Cancer"

Saturday , April 28 , 2012

8:30 AM - 2:00 PM

The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
401 N. Broadway, Weinberg Auditorium, 1st Floor

• We invite you to be among other patients and families who share similiar experiences in their daily challenges with head and neck cancer

• Hear head and neck cancer specialists speak on current topics related to the disease

• Have your questions answered during a panel discussion with head and neck cancer specialists

• Resources will be available at exhibitor tables

To RSVP to this FREE event, please e-mail abrady6@jhmi.edu or call 410-955-2309

HPV and Head & Neck Cancer: What You Need to Know

Click to watch Sara Pai, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology as she talks about human papillomavirus (HPV) and its connection to head and neck cancers in men and women. She discusses new research studies that detail the growing trend of these cancers, as well as the tailored treatments being developed for these cancers.

Head and Neck Cancer Genome Mapped

July 28, 2011 - Johns Hopkins Kimmel and Head and Neck Cancer Center experts have provided an extensive map of gene alterations contributing to head and neck cancer.  Their findings, reported in the journal Science, confirm genetic abnormalities previously suspected in head and neck cancer, including defects in the tumor suppressor gene known as p53. They also found mutations in the NOTCH family of genes, suggesting their role as regulators of an important stage in cell development may be impaired. 

Collaborations Lead to Innovations             

The thyroid and parathyroid surgery team is performing transaxillary operations that leave no scar on patients’ necks.

After finishing his head and neck surgery fellowship at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 2001, Ralph Tufano decided to stay and join the Head and Neck division, even though they were then performing only a handful of thyroid and parathyroid operations. “I felt like I could really be part of a growing area,” he says, “and make a difference.”

Last year, Tufano, now director of thyroid and parathyroid surgery, and his colleagues performed more than 250 thyroid- and parathyroid-related procedures, an expansive growth he attributes to Johns Hopkins’ interdisciplinary approach. Although endocrinology, general surgery, and otolaryngology–head and neck surgery are separate at many hospitals, physicians from these specialties collaborate here to make sure patients get the best care.

Such close teamwork allows them to develop the best plan to tackle especially difficult procedures, such as reoperations when cancer recurs. These surgeries can be incredibly complex, involving navigation around scar tissue from previous surgery. Tufano notes that the ability of the various specialist teams to pool their expertise is a draw for many cancer patients who need follow-up surgery. “We probably do more reoperative procedures than any other place in the country,” he says.

The close collaboration also allows Johns Hopkins’ thyroid and parathyroid surgeons to offer some unique options to patients here. Recently, head and neck surgeons including Jeremy Richmon and colleagues in the Department of Surgery began performing transaxillary thyroidectomies and parathyroidectomies, with incisions through a patient’s armpit instead of the traditional approach through the neck, which leaves a scar.

“We see the majority of thyroid problems in younger women,” Richmon says, “but sometimes those who are advised to have surgery are really reluctant to follow through because they know they’ll have a visible neck scar.”

The procedure involves inserting into a single armpit incision an endoscope with two cameras, along with three robotic arms for grasping, dissecting and cutting. Functional outcomes for this type of surgery have been shown to be the same as those of an open procedure for selected cases.

Richmon anticipates that it’s just a stepping stone to more innovative “scarless” thyroidectomies and parathyroidectomies. He and Tufano have successfully tested another procedure in cadavers in which they make an incision through the floor of the mouth to insert instruments just behind a patient’s teeth. They now hope to offer this option to patients in the next two years.

Meanwhile, Tufano and his colleagues are working on identifying a series of biomarkers that can predict a thyroid cancer patient’s prognosis. Those with a more favorable prognosis may qualify for less aggressive surgery or even avoid surgery altogether.

With thyroid cancers on the rise, Tufano notes that such innovations have never been more necessary.

“We’re excited to develop these ideas,” he says, “and get new treatments out to patients with thyroid and parathyroid disease.”

To refer a patient, call 410-955-3628