Faculty Bibliography

BACKGROUND: Approaches for exposure of the muscles of brow depression include transpalpebral, endoscopically assisted, and open coronal techniques. The purpose of this anatomical study was to compare the capacity for visualization and amount of brow depressor muscle resection with each technique. METHODS: The corrugator supercilii, depressor supercilii, medial orbicularis oculi, and procerus muscles were studied by gross anatomical dissection carried out on 24 sides of 12 cadaver heads. First, all visible corrugator and depressor supercilii muscles were resected by means of an upper blepharoplasty incision. Subsequently, a subgaleal endoscopic approach was used to evaluate the extent of resection performed and remove the remaining muscle after transpalpebral corrugator resection. This was followed by coronal exposure to assess the anatomical location and extent of muscle resection accomplished by the two previously mentioned techniques. RESULTS: In all dissections, endoscopy demonstrated that up to one-third of the lateral aspect of the transverse heads of the corrugator supercilii remained following transpalpebral resection. Oblique corrugator head resections were complete, without significant residual muscle following transpalpebral corrugator resection. The procerus muscle was able to be blindly transected by means of the transpalpebral incision but exposed and ablated in all 12 specimens using endoscopy. Coronal exposure demonstrated that no significant amount of corrugator, depressor supercilii, or procerus muscle remained in any of the 12 heads following endoscopically assisted exposure and resection. The medial head of the orbital portion of the orbicularis oculi was visualized and accessible regardless of the technique used. CONCLUSIONS: In 24 anatomical dissections, transpalpebral corrugator resection failed to remove up to one-third of the transverse head of the corrugator muscle. Removal of the brow depressor muscles was accomplished with the endoscopic approach, as confirmed by coronal exposure

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate quality of life issues in patients with laryngeal cancer after treatment with either chemoradiation or total laryngectomy and radiation therapy. METHODS: Forty-nine patients with a history of stage II-IV laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma treated primarily with either chemoradiation or by total laryngectomy with postoperative radiation completed the University of Washington Quality of Life instrument, version 4. Patients were identified on a volunteer basis in an academic university head and neck clinic setting. Each patient completed the above instrument, and statistical analysis was performed by Wilcoxon and chi 2 tests. RESULTS: Instruments were completed by all 49 patients: 15 patients who underwent primary chemoradiation and 34 patients who underwent a total laryngectomy followed by radiation. Domains reported in both treatment groups without significant differences were appearance, activity, recreation, moods, taste, saliva, anxiety, and general questions. However, there were significant differences between the 2 groups in the domains of pain, swallowing, chewing, speech, and shoulder function. The laryngectomy patients reported greater impairment of speech (P = 0.001), and shoulder function (P = 0.018), whereas the chemoradiation patients suffered from greater pain, difficulty swallowing (P = 0.061), and problems chewing (P = 0.027). CONCLUSIONS: Most patients with laryngeal cancer, whether treated primarily with chemoradiation or total laryngectomy, reported excellent functional outcomes and health-related quality of life. Pain, swallowing, chewing, saliva, and shoulder function were recorded as significant factors affecting their daily quality of life

While neovascularization plays an integral role in atherosclerosis, stimulation of angiogenesis does not appear to promote atherogenesis. This observation is important in view of recent advancements in angiogenic gene and cell therapy aimed at promoting new blood vessel growth in humans with vascular disease. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) may actually prevent rather than provoke intimal thickening and vascular remodeling by promoting re-endothelialization in response to vascular trauma, as occurs with percutaneous transluminal vascular intervention for treating atherosclerotic vessels. Further support for the hypothesis that EPCs continuously repair vascular injury and contribute to the rejuvenation of vessels has been derived from animal studies demonstrating that serial injection of bone marrow-derived EPCs prevent atherogenesis, but that the quantity and quality of these cells deteriorate with aging. This chapter provides a summary of the influence of angiogenesis on atheromatous disease. Furthermore, the increasingly important relationship between atherosclerosis and newly emerging techniques in therapeutic angiogenesis (i.e., gene therapy and cell therapy with EPCs) is discussed

Genomes of solid tumors are characterized by gains and losses of regions, which may contribute to tumorigenesis by altering gene expression. Often the aberrations are extensive, encompassing whole chromosome arms, which makes identification of candidate genes in these regions difficult. Here, we focused on narrow regions of gene amplification to facilitate identification of genetic pathways important in oral squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) development. We used array comparative genomic hybridization (array CGH) to define minimum common amplified regions and then used expression analysis to identify candidate driver genes in amplicons that spanned <3 Mb. We found genes involved in integrin signaling (TLN1), survival (YAP1, BIRC2), and adhesion and migration (TLN1, LAMA3, MMP7), as well as members of the hedgehog (GLI2) and notch (JAG1, RBPSUH, FJX1) pathways to be amplified and overexpressed. Deregulation of these and other members of the hedgehog and notch pathways (HHIP, SMO, DLL1, NOTCH4) implicates deregulation of developmental and differentiation pathways, cell fate misspecification, in oral SCC development

BACKGROUND: An increasing incidence of oral carcinoma among young adults has been reported in the U.S. and Europe. Although the association between human papillomavirus infection and tonsillar carcinoma is now well established, to the authors' knowledge little is known about incidence trends in tonsillar carcinoma among younger adults. The objective of the current study was to explore the trends in both oral cavity and pharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) in younger U.S. populations, in particular tongue and tonsillar SCC. METHODS: Using the 1973-2001 Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database, we computed age, race, and site-specific trends of oral and pharyngeal (excluding nasopharynx) carcinoma incidence rates. The percent change (PC) and annual percent change (APC) were computed to explore trends in incidence rates over time. RESULTS: There were 2262 SCC of the oral cavity and 1251 SCC of the pharynx reported to the SEER program from 1973 to 2001 in adults aged 20-44 years. There was a statistically significant increase in the incidence of oral tongue SCC (APC = +2.1; P < 0.001), base of tongue SCC (APC = +1.7; P = 0.04), and palatine tonsil SCC (APC = +3.9; P < 0.001) among younger white individuals, whereas the incidence of SCC in all other oral and pharyngeal sites decreased or remained constant. CONCLUSIONS: The increase in tonsil SCC incidence from 1973 to 2001 paralleled the increase in tongue SCC, whereas SCC in all other oral and pharyngeal sites remained constant or decreased. This may suggest similar etiologic factors for SCC affecting the palatine tonsils and tongue in younger populations