Faculty Bibliography

Multidisciplinary conferences (MDC) are an important component of head and neck oncologic care including diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. Virtual MDC allows for improved collaboration between providers at distant sites and proper allocation of health care resources in a time of crisis. When approached systematically, a virtual MDC is feasible to design and implement in a large academic medical center with multiple satellite hospitals.

Knowledge of the genetic landscape of aggressive well differentiated thyroid cancers (WDTC) is lacking. Retrospective review of institutional database was performed to identify locally-invasive thyroid carcinomas and a comparison cohort of low-risk WDTC. ThyroSeq v2 next-generation sequencing was performed on available tissue. Survival time was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier methods and compared between groups via the log-rank test. Time to recurrence, treating death as a competing risk, was analyzed by cumulative incidence and compared between groups. Of 80 T4 tumors, 29 (36%) were met inclusion criteria, of which, 25 had genetic and clinicopathologic data. Most (24/25, 96%) harbored at least one genetic alteration, most commonly BRAF V600E (19, 76%), followed by mutations in the promoter region of TERT (14, 56%). Co-occurrence of BRAF and TERT was identified in 12 (48%) and associated with significantly higher risk of recurrence (p < 0.05). Conversely, co-occurrence of BRAF and TERT was present in only 5 of 102 (5%) patients presenting with early-stage WDTC. Compared to early-stage WDTC, co-occurrence of BRAF and TERT mutations are common in locally advanced (T4) thyroid cancer and are associated with an increased risk of recurrence. This knowledge may help predict aggressive behavior pretreatment and inform perioperative decision-making.

The nasoseptal flap (NSF) has been described as reconstructive option for soft palate defects following transoral robotic surgery (TORS). As described, this technique is does not provide adequate coverage of the lateral oropharyngeal wall, parapharyngeal space, exposed vessels, or exposed mandibular bone. The NSF for TORS reconstruction has been limited to soft palate reconstruction, given the limitations on length when passed via the nasopharynx. In this article, we describe (1) a novel technique for TORS reconstruction using direct transposition of the ipsilateral NSF into the oropharynx via a transpalatal tunnel at the hard-soft palate junction, and (2) its use in select patients.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) arises through exposure to environmental carcinogens or malignant transformation by human papillomavirus (HPV). Here, we assessed the transcriptional profiles of 131,224 single cells from peripheral and intra-tumoral immune populations from patients with HPV^- and HPV⁺ HNSCC and healthy donors. Immune cells within tumors of HPV^- and HPV⁺ HNSCC displayed a spectrum of transcriptional signatures, with helper CD4⁺ T cells and B cells being relatively divergent and CD8+ T cells and CD4+ regulatory T cells being relatively similar. Transcriptional results were contextualized through multispectral immunofluorescence analyses and evaluating putative cell-cell communication based on spatial proximity. These analyses defined a gene expression signature associated with CD4⁺ T follicular helper cells that is associated with longer progression-free survival in HNSCC patients. The datasets and analytical approaches herein provide a resource for the further study of the impact of immune cells on viral- and carcinogen-induced cancers.