Transoral robotic surgery for the treatment of T1-T2 carcinoma of the larynx: preliminary study.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: To determine the feasibility and the preliminary oncological results of transoral robotic surgery (TORS) for the treatment of early stage laryngeal tumors. STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective single center study. METHODS: We reviewed the medical records of 23 patients who underwent TORS for the treatment of T1 or T2 laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma between August 2009 and March 2012. RESULTS: Laryngeal tumors were involving the glottis (13 cases) and the supraglottis (10 cases). They were classified T1 N0 in 16 cases, T2 N0 in four cases, and T2 N+ in three cases. The median TORS operative time was 60 minutes (ranging from 30 to 118 minutes). The median hospitalization time was 7.5 days. Histopathological examination of the resected tumors confirmed 14 cases in which the margins were clear, four cases in which the surgical margins were close (less than 1 mm), one case in which the margins were microscopically positive, and in four cases margins status were not able to be recorded. A tracheostomy was carried out for three patients, and 11 patients got a nasogastric feeding tube postoperatively. The local recurrence rate was 8.7% (2/ 23 cases), and in both cases the recurrence occurred in the anterior commissure area only. The overall larynx preservation rate was 95,7% (22/ 23 cases). CONCLUSION: In this preliminary study, we demonstrated that laryngeal TORS is feasible and may result in oncological results comparable with other treatment strategies, including laser CO2 surgery. This innovative approach needs to be evaluated through randomized multi-institutional trial. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4.

Development and validity of the DyNaChron questionnaire for chronic nasal dysfunction.

Nasal symptoms are the main elements that lead to a therapeutic decision and allow for evaluating treatment effects or natural evolution. Despite availability of several questionnaires with good measurement qualities, no systematic assessment takes into account the specific physical and psychosocial consequences of each of the six main nasal symptoms, independently of the disease. We proposed to measure these symptoms with the use of a self-reporting questionnaire and to test the validity of the questionnaire in a large representative sample of patients attending outpatient rhinologic clinics. The study was conducted in two parts: (1) expert-based development and testing of the face validity of a questionnaire in French; and (2) validity testing, including construct validity by factor analysis, reproducibility by intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Bland and Altman plots, and sensitivity to change by standardized response means, on a large sample of patients in a prospective multicenter study. DyNaChron, a questionnaire with 78 items divided into six domains and exploring both the physical and psychosocial repercussions of CND, was developed. In total, 759 patients completed the questionnaire at a first visit to a clinic, and 539 again 19.5 days later, on average. The questionnaire structure was confirmed to be composed of six domains (6 factors explaining 68.7% of the variance), with two dimensions in each domain. The questionnaire's convergent validity was confirmed; the Cronbach alpha coefficient for domains was high (0.93-0.96), the ICC ranged from 0.8 to 0.92, and the questionnaire's sensitivity to change was greater for patients with improved health status than for those with worsened status. DyNaChron is a well-structured questionnaire with a high degree of internal consistency and all properties needed to be used in research. It should now be compared with other questionnaires and objective measures to assess whether or not DyNaChron better measures disease severity and its changes. Further work will involve shortening the instrument for use in clinical practice and create a "patient symptomatology score".

Robotic thyroid surgery: our experience with the infraclavicular approach.

BACKGROUND: Robot-assisted endoscopic transaxillary thyroidectomy is an emerging surgical technique. Despite promising results it presents some limitations and remains controversial in terms of usefulness and validity. We developed an alternative robotic technique using a gasless infraclavicular approach. METHODS: We tested this approach using cadaveric dissection, then we performed the technique on a series of 21 patients from October 2009 to July 2010. RESULTS: Sixteen patients underwent total thyroidectomy and 5 patients underwent lobectomies. Mean total operative time was 197 minutes. We observed postoperative complications in 4 patients. Pathologic diagnoses included: benign follicular adenoma (19 patients) and single papillary carcinoma <1 cm in diameter pT1a (2 patients). CONCLUSIONS: The infraclavicular approach for robotic thyroidectomy is feasible, but is not safe enough to be recommended, based on our experience and on the technical difficulties encountered. The use of 2 robotic arms instead of 3 is a major limitation for this technique.

Gene expression profiling in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: Clinical perspectives.

BACKGROUND: To date, more than 60 gene expression profiling (GEP) studies have been published in the field of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) with variable objectives, methods, and results. METHODS: The purpose of this study was to present a state-of-the-art review of GEP in HNSCC focusing on the current advances and perspectives for clinical applications. RESULTS: Gene expression signatures have been developed to identify screening and diagnostic molecular markers, to improve tumor staging (cervical lymph node and distant metastasis prediction), to differentiate lung metastasis of HNSCC from primary lung squamous cell carcinoma, to predict tumor response to chemoradiotherapy, and to provide outcome predictors. CONCLUSION: Some transcriptional signatures that could improve HNSCC management have been identified, but further analyses are required to properly validate and to precisely evaluate their clinical relevance. After an exploratory phase, the completion of large scale projects with stringent methodology is now necessary to transfer GEP from bench to bedside.