Beata Jagielska

Współczesne zasady leczenia nowotworów głowy i szyi
2006-03-16

Present methods of the treatment of the head and neck cancers. An updated review on the head and neck cancers is presented. Following topics are discussed: epidemiology, etiopathogenesis, pathomorphology and treatment strategies. A special attention is paid to radiotherapy and surgery as basic methods of the head and neck tumors. Advantages and shortcomings of both methods are discussed. Chemotherapy is used mainly in the treatment of distant metastases and its aim is improving quality of life of patients and prolonging survive time. Mechanisms of side-effects of radio- and chemotherapy are presented. In coming years should be possible to optimize simultaneous radio- and chemotherapy. Development of immunopathology, cytometry and techniques of molecular biology should create new possibilities to determine biological characteristic of tumors and enable introducing new strategy - targeted therapy.