Breakthroughs and challenges in the treatment of head and neck cancer

Dr. Robert Sifrer, Director of the Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Ljubljana, believes that the most important breakthrough in the treatment of head and neck cancer patients has been the recent development of immunotherapy, which is also helping patients with advanced stage cancer, and expects the importance of drug therapies to increase in the future. He was also asked about the problems of caring for patients with head and neck cancer in our interview at the International Danube Symposium on Otolaryngology.

HPV-associated head and neck cancers

Professor Thomas Hoffmann, Director of the Department of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Ulm, raises awareness of the growing number of HPV-associated head and neck cancers in our interview. The right combination of treatment modalities - less and less invasive surgical procedures, increasingly precise radiotherapy options and systemic therapies, especially immunotherapies - can make a dramatic difference to disease outcomes, while the role of prophylactic HPV vaccination cannot be overemphasised.