Newly Diagnosed?
We Can Help Getting the correct diagnosis and the most appropriate treatment from the start is crucial 
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Many cancers of the head and neck can be cured, especially if they are found early. Treatment varies according to the type, severity, and location of the disease, and may include surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy. Increasingly, Memorial Sloan-Kettering physicians are combining treatment modalities to maximize the chances of curing the cancer.
Curing head and neck cancer is the physician's primary goal, but preserving our patients' appearance and ability to function -- quality of life -- is also extremely important and is an integral part of treatment. Today, advances in surgical techniques, reconstruction, and nonsurgical treatment methods mean that nearly every patient attains those quality-of-life goals.
Surgery
Surgery is the mainstay of treatment for most cancers of the head and neck, and advances in surgical techniques mean that in a growing number of patients, surgeons can remove tumors while preserving nearby structures that are key to function. For example, advances may now allow doctors to spare the eye when a tumor is crowding that area, and to avoid removal of the entire voice box in patients with laryngeal cancer.
In some patients doctors may need to surgically examine the lymph nodes in the neck (called a neck dissection) to see if any cancer cells have spread beyond their site of origin. New techniques allow surgeons to remove these lymph nodes while sparing nerves that are important for shoulder function. Complex operations for tumors at the base of the skull -- once considered nearly impossible -- are now performed. The skull base surgery team at Memorial Sloan-Kettering performs about 30 of these rare operations annually.
When surgery is extensive, immediate reconstruction of the area is often possible. For example, in cases where surgeons must remove the jaw bone, they can fashion a new jaw using part of a bone in the patient's own leg. Surgeons use special microsurgical techniques to move blood vessels along with the leg bone and attach these to blood vessels in the neck, creating a blood supply for the new jaw. Memorial Sloan-Kettering surgeons developed this technique some 15 years ago. Similarly, surgeons can now use skin and muscle from a patient's back or abdomen to replace part of the scalp. Dental and maxillofacial surgeons use implants to replace teeth lost during treatment.
