Talk:Head and neck cancer

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Ideal sources for Wikipedia's health content are defined in the guideline Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine) and are typically review articles. Here are links to possibly useful sources of information about Head and neck cancer.

PubMed provides review articles from the past five years (limit to free review articles)
The TRIP database provides clinical publications about evidence-based medicine.
Other potential sources include: Centre for Reviews and Dissemination and CDC

Merge

Head and neck cancer already exists, the editor simply misspelled the name cancer as "caner" Emt147 25 March 2006

Mergering Throat cancer with this might be a good idea, but it would be difficult as Head and neck cancer is written (what there is of it) in a classification fashion and throat cancer is written in a more general informational style. Luxomni 17:57, 9 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

March 1, 2007 additions

If anybody starts deleting my edits, I will laugh. This article was in pretty rough shape before tonight. I have spent three hours redacting, adding references, and learning. There is still a lot of work to be done, but I think this article has the potential to be a huge resource to patients and their families.--Dr.michael.benjamin 08:04, 1 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Larynx should be separate from Hypopharynx

At the moment these two are classified in the same paragraph. From a H&N oncology P.O.V. they are classified differantly. These two sites are also regarded as distinct in the UICC classification. There are significant differences in teatment and prognosis. Early laryngeal cancer only rarely spreads to local cervical nodes, whereas this happens more often in hypopharyngeal csncer. The lyphatic drainage of the true vocal cords is very poor indeed. In addition, early glottic cancer is probably the most common H&N malignancy presenting in the Western world. It has an excellent prognosis. The outlook for hypopharyngeal cancers is much less good.Jellytussle 07:55, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed. Done. -Rustavo^{Talk/Contribs} 18:18, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed merge of Throat cancer into this page

The page throat cancer is currently a confusing mish-mash of information about Head and neck cancer and Esophageal cancer, which are distinct classes of cancer, with very different subclassification, etiology, treatment, and prognosis. Throat cancer is largely unreferenced, but has a nice image and some accurate information that (when referenced) could improve this article as well as some parts appropriate for Esophageal cancer. I propose we reduce the page Throat cancer to a disambiguation page with only enough information as is necessary to direct the casual reader to head and neck cancer, esophageal cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma etc. -Rustavo^{Talk/Contribs} 18:33, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. There is nothing in the Throat cancer page which has not been stated better, or in more detail on other pages. It is a complete mongrel at present, and could really be deleted without any loss. the radiotherapy discussion is woeful. The picture of the immobilisation mask is good, but replaceable.Jellytussle 20:37, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

OK, I went ahead and merged. There are substantial amounts of redundant or poorly written material that need to be worked on though. I'll get to it over time. -Rustavo^{Talk/Contribs} 03:51, 17 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I removed a reference to Oral Sex as a risk factor for Graham Chapman. While technically true, I thought it was both misleading and, perhaps, bigoted. The reference made it appear that Oral sex ranked equally among alchohol and tobacco use as risk factors for Chapman. This was a guy who smoked a pipe for many years and was an alchoholic for many as well. Clearly these factors put him far more at risk than most people. On the other hand it really isn't clear that Chapman engaged in some extraordianry amount of oral sex. Did Sammy Davis Jr. have oral sex? I'm really not sure, but it isn't mentioned as a contributing cause to his cancer. As far as I can tell the reference in Chapman's case seems to be a thin allusion to his homosexuality. The discussion earlier on HPV covers the ground fine, I don't really see the reason to bring it up again in an unproveable claim.

Agree with the above comments. That whole section needs editing for content (arguably the celebrity aspect is irrelevant, and also incomplete: where is George Harrison, or Frederick the Great?) and style (second person) Suggest delete entire final celeb paragraph.Jellytussle 08:12, 18 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

"Throat" cancer

Can we avoid using this term when editing? It is non-specific, and not useful in a detailed article on H&N cancer. Whilst some might term laryngeal (glottic) cancer as throat cancer, it certainly does not apply to cancers of the nasopharynx, tongue base, oral cavity, salivary glands, paranasal sinuses etc. Jellytussle 12:39, 18 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Reduce the Targeted therapy section

the Targeted therapy section has too much detail on some trials. Rod57 (talk) 01:52, 6 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ref needed for this

===Notable people who died of head and neck cancers===
Michael Chrichton - the notable author of Jurassic Park and other popular books and films

John Gotti - the late Boss of the New York City Gambino crime family, who died of throat cancer

Bobby Hamilton - a NASCAR driver, who died of head and neck cancer

Michael Piller - television scriptwriter and producer, most famous for his contributions to the Star Trek franchise, who died of head and neck cancer

John Diamond - the late husband of Nigella Lawson and the author of "C - Because Cowards Get Cancer Too", who died of throat cancer

Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 14:38, 26 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

John Diamond did die of H&N cancer ... throat I think. Remember watching a documentary on it. Perhaps that documentary would be good as a source if anyone comes across it. Not to mention if there is a book, but agree need a source. Lesion (talk) 21:16, 14 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Sources

I am worried about the large number of non-WP:MEDRS sources. Websites from national organisations are probably not full of errors, but their editorial process is not as clear as that of peer-reviewed publications.

doi:10.1172/JCI59889 is a recent review on the molecular pathogenesis of head and neck cancer. Worth including. JFW | T@lk 19:18, 4 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright concerns

In a series of edits (one, two, three), a user currently undergoing a contributor copyright investigation pasted content into this article from at least two sources. Some of it was taken from this copyrighted source, while other material was taken from Cancer Medicine volume 6. That latter resource is available in snippet view only, but Google book search shows me the following text:

Several generalizations are useful in therapeutic decision making, but variations on these themes are numerous. Surgical resection and radiation therapy are the mainstays of treatment for most head and neck cancers and remain the standard ...

This contributor added to the article:

Several generalizations are useful in therapeutic decision making, but variations on these themes are numerous. Surgical resection and radiation therapy are the mainstays of treatment for most head and neck cancers and remain the standard of care in most cases.

Given his history, there's little reason to doubt that everything he put into this article was authored by somebody else.

Assistance from those familiar with this field in locating and extracting his text would be greatly appreciated. We can retain content contributed by others, of course, but should not retain material that builds on his contributions, as these are likely to constitute a derivative work. Minimal changes to source material do not efface copyright infringement.

I'll try to keep an eye on this talk page, but I work extensively with copyright concerns and may sometimes lose track of something on my watchlist. If you have questions about this, please let me know at my talk page, and I'll be happy to assist however I can. --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 12:01, 14 January 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Missing H&N sites

Nasal cavity, paranasal air sinuses. Technically anything in head and neck right, so brain, ears, facial skin, etc. Lesion (talk) 21:19, 14 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

No. H&N is generally taken to mean anything above the clavicles excluding brain, spinal cord, whcih generally falls under the specialty of CNS cancers. Also, variably, thyroid cancers, skin cancers , lymphomas, and sarcomas originating on the H&N may be dealt with by non-H&N tumour-type specialist teams Jellytussle (talk) 14:36, 19 September 2014 (UTC)[reply]

"highly curable"

from the lede: "Head and neck cancer is highly curable if detected early, usually with some form of surgery, but radiation therapy may also play an important role, while chemotherapy is often ineffective" I see nothing in reference 5 to support any part of this sentence. I think it's the sort of overgeneralization that has no place in an encyclopedia, . The data in ref 20 cited in the Epidemiology section would seem to indicate a 25% death rate, DGG ( talk ) 00:40, 4 November 2014 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

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Proposed merge of Head and neck squamous-cell carcinoma into Head and neck cancer

Most head and neck cancers are squamous-cell type. Much of material is duplicated on target page. Little if any justification for separate article. Iztwoz (talk) 06:17, 28 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Agree. Also "Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma" is a topic overview rather than a specific type of cancer (which would be squamous cell carcinoma), so I think it's better on the same article. --Tom (LT) (talk) 06:52, 29 November 2019 (UTC)[reply]

UCSF WikiMedicine Project - December 2020

Hello! I am a 4th-year medical student at UCSF. I will be updating this topic as part of a course on WikiProject Medicine. Hoping to increase this article's importance and impact for this selective group of patients, and possibly disseminate information across similarly related articles.

Main goals: - Add a section on patient experience and caregiver experience/burden - update the H&N CA HPV-positive section as well as treatment outcomes section with new data that is stratified by the patient's underlying cancer cyto-pathology that takes into account the patient's base risk factor/s for H&N CA (smoking, etoh, etc.) and how that might impact treatment options and prognosis. - other goals: will look into changing the case photo to one that is more inclusive and representative of what patient's may be looking up.

Thank you! And looking forward for additional feedback and suggestions! — Preceding unsigned comment added by AmandaTrujilloHumphrey (talk • contribs) 04:42, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Comment on recent additions

AmandaTrujilloHumphrey I have temporarily removed your additions because they are essential original research. Generic sources were provided about caregiver burden but this is not specific to head and neck cancer. I would strongly suggest you identify specific sources before expanding the "Mental health" subsection further.

Furthermore, I have moved your note about the project to the bottom of the talk page. New notes should always go there. In this case, it broke the boxes that contain article assessment and prioritsation for WikiProjects. JFW | T@lk 21:37, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hey JFW, thank you for the communication and critique! Distress amongst H&N cancer patients and their caregivers is an increasing field of study and is an apparent outlier when compared to other patient-caregiver dyads (cancer and non-cancer). The audience is always important, thus, I'm attempting to add greater scope of information in this article, and that will be useful to both medical professionals and laymen. Citations will be following in short order to further elucidate this growing understanding unique to this diagnosis. — Preceding unsigned comment added by AmandaTrujilloHumphrey (talk • contribs) 22:16, 13 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with my medical school colleague that this is an important area to discuss, and as they are still in the process of including references, etc. perhaps leave this section at least until they are able to flush it out more fully. On a separate note, this is overall a very rich source of information and I was thinking what else could be added. I like the idea of a different photo (perhaps of a less advanced case, or showing the variability of presentations). Also, for some of the condition pages they include famous cases (like Lou Gehrig for ALS for example) and I was thinking about Michael Douglas and his cancer that was extensively covered in the media. Do you think it would be appropriate to include?CMCarlston (talk) 01:16, 14 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Can someone add HPV vaccine in prevention?

Avoiding alcohol and tobacco is the only thing currently listed. HPV is a drastically rising cause. Thanks! Dkbl22 (talk) 05:34, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]