Oral Cavity Squamous Cell Carcinoma: An Update of the Pharmacological Treatment

Oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC) represents a serious health and socio-economic problem in different geographical areas of the world. It is characterized by a high rate of mortality, recurrence and metastasis. Despite the therapeutic strategies implemented for its management and resolution, currently the survival estimate for locally advanced disease is about 50%. The available therapeutic options comprise surgery and pharmacological treatment. Recently, an increased emphasis has been placed on the drugs that might be of benefit in this life-threatening disease. Therefore, the aim of this present review was to offer a general survey of the current available pharmacological treatment for OCSCC. The PubMed database was used to retrieve the papers using "OCSCC" as the search terms. We limited our search to the last 5 years to give a more updated and recent picture of the state of the art, including preclinical and clinical investigations. We found that 77 out of 201 papers were on the surgical treatment of OCSCC, 43 out of 201 focused on the radiotherapy and 81 out of 201 underwent evaluation for the aim of our review. We excluded the case reports, editorial letters, observational studies and papers written in languages other than English. A total of 12 articles were included in the final review. Our results showed that nanotechnologies use to enhance the efficacy of anticancer drugs such as: cisplatin, paclitaxel, cetuximab, EGFR antagonists, MEK1/2 and immune check inhibitors combination could have promising anti-cancer activity. However, the paucity of available data on drugs suggests the urgent need to improve the pharmacological armamentarium for OCSCC treatment.

A cohort study on anticoagulant therapy risks in dental patients after multiple extractions

BACKGROUND

Due to technology and pharmaceutical science and increasing life expectancy, the patient population is continuously aging. Patients requiring dental extractions often have systemic and/or chronic diseases and are undergoing polypharmacologic therapy. Oral surgeons often interface with patients who perform anticoagulant therapy. The main aim of this study was to clarify what the contraindications and short-/long-term complications may be.

METHODS

A sample of 298 patients (mean age 58 years) who required multiple surgical dental extractions has been taken in consideration. Patients were divided into groups and subgroups according to the anticoagulant drug therapy.

RESULTS

Long-term complications represented variable bleeding between groups from 8 hours to 7 days after surgery. The One-Way ANOVA Test was used to compare the results between groups. Patients treated with direct oral anticoagulants showed fewer intraoperative problems, but further studies and further collaboration between doctors, cardiologists and oral dentists/surgeons are certainly needed to manage these patients in a predictable manner.

CONCLUSIONS

This study showed that using direct oral anticoagulants drugs results in few intraoperative bleeding, less postoperative hemorrhagic complications, and an easier administration of the drugs respect vitamin K antagonists, with mild and manageable complications.