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Head and neck cancers are the seventh most common type of cancer worldwide. The chemotherapy drug cisplatin is the gold standard for treating these malignancies. However, more than 30% of patients, including some older adults and those with pre-existing kidney disease or hearing loss, cannot take cisplatin due to severe side effects. The monoclonal antibody cetuximab, while not as effective as cisplatin, is often used as an alternative in these patients. Durvalumab, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, has shown promise for treating a wide range of cancers, and has been proposed as a potentially safer and more effective option than cetuximab,...

A study suggests that cannabis, the most commonly used illicit substance worldwide, is associated with an increased occurrence of head and neck cancer. A large, multicenter study revealed that adults with cannabis dependence, known as cannabis use disorder, are 3.5 to 5 times more likely to develop head and neck cancer than those who do not use the substance. Head and neck cancer, the sixth most common cancer in the world, includes several cancers, including cancer of the mouth, pharynx, larynx, oropharynx (tongue and tonsils and back wall of the throat) and adjacent salivary glands. The researchers discovered that those...

A new paper shows how an amino acid may hold the secrets of oral cancers. Upper aerodigestive squamous cell carcinoma is a common and aggressive malignancy—it attacks more than half a million people each year, leaving them battling fatal tumors in the airways of the head and neck. Even with so many individuals impacted, there are few effective therapeutic options. Assistant Professor Dechen Lin may just have a solution. New research shows that a pathway of a particular amino acid may be critical in shutting down the growth and proliferation of oral cancers, and a specific diet could be a...