Programme

Overview: The session is facing one of the main current issues in Head and Neck surgery. The new (with robot telemanipulation, TORS) and old transoral techniques (transoral laser micro surgery, TLM) have the common goal of achieving the proven compliance with tumor-free resection margins with possible maximum protection of the functionally relevant surrounding tissue. Despite the 5mm R0 resection, which is conventionally described as a "clear margin" in the guidelines, the scientific debate about the prognostically optimal minimum distance of the tumor-boarder continues. The speakers will meet this point coming from different sides of view. Christian Simon will present current developments on available robotic systems for head and neck surgery, exploiting them beyond trans-oral surgery, i.e hybrid approaches and give some outlook to new systems awaiting FDA approval, and future concepts, i.e. “soft“ robots. Andrezej Marszalek will point out the limits and possibilities of pathological diagnostics and the discussion that also takes place outside the oral cavity about the recommendation to take frozen sections better from the harvested specimen or from the tumor bed after resection. Finally, Giovanni Succo will introduce new intraoperative visualization tools to detect better margins like 3D transoral exo/endoscopic surgery.

Overview: This session will offer multidisciplinary perspective on innovations in patient-reported and clinician-graded surveillance of late effects, highlighting QOL measurement and imaging of mandibular osteoradionecrosis as two examples. Inflammation as a mediator of post-sickness syndrome will be explored as a novel mechanism of late effects in head and neck cancer survivors.

Overview: Artificial intelligence has stunned the world with the latest innovations. Using artificial intelligence, big data consisting of numerous known and unknown variables can feed algorithms that enhance treatment protocols, and predict treatment outcome. But what are the risks of relying on algorithms that are beyond the capacity of the human brain? Four outstanding speakers will try to convince you that AI is ready – or not – to replace the multidisciplinary team.

Overview: The session ‘From bench to bedside and beyond’ will spotlight challenges in the prevention and treatment of head and neck cancer, particularly focusing on early diagnosis, biomarkers for disease progression and immunotherapy. We will commence with a presentation and discussion on limitations and challenges of gold standard (histopathology) diagnosis and on biomarkers related to potentially malignant oral disorders, their clinical and molecular classification, and innovative prevention strategies. We will discuss added value of immunohistochemical markers for early diagnosis of histologically subtitle lesions. Further we will go to exploration of the role of myeloid cells' immunosuppressive role in head and neck cancer progression, and the identification of myeloid cell-associated biomarkers, covering ongoing trials and pre-clinical studies. The session will then continue with biomarkers of immune response to immunotherapy in head and neck cancer, and address patient selection insights from extensive phase 2/3 studies (CPS PD-L1, HPV status), as well as new potential blood-based biomarkers.