Palliative chirurgie bei inkurablen kopf-hals-karzinomen

Despite medical advances and treatment breakthroughs, only some 50% of newly identified head and neck cancer patients will finally be cured from their disease. Therefore, large portion of this patient population will require palliative care and treatment. Surgical palliation is less frequently used than chemotherapy and other medical approaches to this clinical situation. The palliative management options of airway obstruction resulting from advanced-stage head and neck cancer will be reviewed, including development and current use of laser resection, airway stenting, and radical surgery to achieve local and regional control. Some of these modalities frequently are used simultaneously in the same patient and may be used in conjunction with current chemotherapeutic and conventional external-beam radiation protocols.