Treatment Strategies for Head and Neck Cancer Confronting Cancer Through Multidisciplinary Collaboration

Regardless of the type of cancer, multidisciplinary collaboration is essential. Head and cancer patients have many difficulties, including aesthetic, respiration, swallowing, and speaking issues. There are many problems that cannot be solved within a hospital alone, and patients may need to be referred to other hospitals. Some patients with head and neck cancer have no key relatives or carers and lack a support system because they smoke or drink too much, live alone, or are elderly. For these reasons, it may be necessary to rely on the support of the government and on medical personnel inside and outside the hospital.

Suicide is also a serious problem; head and neck cancer survivors are said to have twice the suicide rate of sufferers of other cancers and four times that of the general public. We will discuss what is needed and what is lacking in the treatment of patients with head and neck cancer, and in their enjoyment of a sufficient life after treatment and palliative care. This collection will address the challenges and complications associated with head and neck cancer treatment, such as radiation-induced toxicity, dysphagia, and speech and language problems and provide practical advice on how to manage these complications and emphasize the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to care.

The following is a description of what oncologists, dentists, pharmacists, radiation oncologists, and head and neck surgeons should keep in mind when examining patients with head and neck cancer, and what they would like to see happen in the multidisciplinary setting.

Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation with an independent cohort of new cases will not be accepted in any of the sections of Frontiers in Oncology.