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INTRODUCTION their efforts on morbidity reduction, increased the quality
of life and the functional status of the patients. The
[5]
Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is one of the most common development of reconstructive surgical techniques such
malignant neoplasms in the head and neck and the sixth as microvascularized free flaps, led us transfer any kind of
cause of cancer worldwide. Approximately 600,000 cases are tissue (skin, muscle bone, nerves) to the surgical defect after
diagnosed every year. Although head and neck squamous cell resection.
carcinoma (HNSCC) includes salivary glands and paranasal
sinuses tumours, their low incidence and different behaviour, Treatment choices depend on the neoplasm location,
have been made them be excluded from this study. [1] tumour stage and the oncologic free disease survival
expectation. Surgery is still the main therapy, most of
There are many risk factors associated to HNSCC, but, alcohol the time accompanied by postoperative RT. Although,
and tobacco consumption are the most important and some advanced cases need to be treated with CMT with
they are related to the 75% total tumours. However, recent cetuximab. The overall survival rate varies between 40-60%
studies have demonstrated that the connection between the after 5 years of treatment. [6]
infection by oncogenic virus human papillomavirus (HPV)
(specifically the serotype 16) and SCC is an established METHODS
cause of oropharynx cancer, mainly located in tonsils
and base of the tongue. [2,3] Currently, the incidence of A qualitative review of the literature about actual prognosis
HPV-related HNSCC has been increased in the young
population. and quality of life of oral squamous cell carcinoma has been
done analysing the results of surgical treatment and their
The survival rate of HNSCC among the last 20 years impact on the quality of life of patients. A bibliographic
has increased considerably. The development of new search on MEDLINE and EMBASE databases, with the key
methods of diagnosis, surgical techniques, radiotherapy words: “carcinoma, squamous cell of the head and neck”;
(RT) and chemotherapy (CMT), are helpful tools that “head and neck neoplasms/mortality”; “quality of life”;
contributed to achieve the best results. [4] “oral cancer” was conducted. After a manual selection of
the abstracts, a total amount of 45 papers were selected
During the last decades, head and neck surgeons focused from the literature and intensively reviewed.

Figure 1: Infiltrated skin with cervical infection in a recurrent tracheostomized head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patient
204 Plast Aesthet Res || Volume 3 || June 24, 2016