Papadimitrakopoulou V A
Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston 77030, USA.
Curr Opin Oncol. 2000 May;12(3):240-5. doi: 10.1097/00001622-200005000-00009.
Head and neck cancer is an important public health problem worldwide, accounting for approximately 40,400 new cancer cases and 12,300 cancer deaths annually in the US. Although early-stage disease is often curable with surgery or radiotherapy, the majority of patients present with advanced disease in which despite advances in combined modality therapy the outcomes have not dramatically improved. Furthermore, patients cured of their initial early-stage head and neck squamous cell carcinoma are at high risk for development of second primary tumors, which pose the main threat to survival. An alternative approach in reducing the incidence and thus mortality associated with these cancers is chemoprevention, the use of agents to reverse, halt, or delay carcinogenesis. The carcinogenesis process in head and neck cancer results from a dysregulation of cellular proliferation, differentiation, and cell death resulting from field-wide exposure of the upper aerodigestive tract to tobacco smoking. Newly acquired knowledge in the field of tumor biology and of the genetic changes underlying carcinogenesis through the use of new molecular technology represents the basis on which chemoprevention efforts should be based.
头颈癌是全球重要的公共卫生问题，在美国每年约有40400例新发癌症病例和12300例癌症死亡。尽管早期疾病通常可通过手术或放疗治愈，但大多数患者就诊时已处于晚期，尽管综合治疗方式有所进展，但其治疗效果并未显著改善。此外，最初治愈的早期头颈鳞状细胞癌患者发生第二原发性肿瘤的风险很高，这对生存构成了主要威胁。降低这些癌症发病率进而降低死亡率的另一种方法是化学预防，即使用药物来逆转、阻止或延缓致癌作用。头颈癌的致癌过程是由于上消化道广泛暴露于吸烟导致细胞增殖、分化和细胞死亡失调所致。通过使用新的分子技术在肿瘤生物学领域以及致癌作用潜在基因变化方面新获得的知识是化学预防工作应基于的基础。
