Manuscript title: the maxillary swing approach - the first Scandinavian experience

BACKGROUND

The maxillary swing approach was introduced three decades ago in the head and neck field providing optimal surgical exposure for tumors in the nasopharyngeal and/or the retromaxillary space.

OBJECTIVES

To report the clinical experience, patient surgical morbidity and survival outcomes following the introduction of the maxillary swing approach in Denmark.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

A retrospective study including patients who underwent the maxillary swing approach from January 2012 - January 2020. Baseline and perioperative data, pathology, postoperative morbidity and survival outcomes were registered.

RESULTS

Sixteen patients were included of which 15 had a malignant tumor with different histology, while one patient had a benign tumor. Most commonly reported short-term morbidity were trismus, cheek hypoesthesia, nasopalatal fistula, lacrimation and nasal stenosis (<3 months postoperatively) improving markedly at 12 months follow-up. For patients with malignant tumors, the 5-year overall survival and recurrence-free survival rates were 60% and 66.7%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE

The maxillary swing approach was safely implemented by a multidisciplinary team at a high-volume centralized head and neck cancer center in Denmark. The procedure may be considered for salvage surgery of recurrent nasopharyngeal carcinomas and selected malignant and benign tumors located in the nasopharynx and/or retromaxillary space inaccessible by other surgical modalities.

Patient-individual cancer cell lines and tissue analysis delivers no evidence of sequences from DNA viruses in colorectal cancer cells

Background

Several DNA viruses are highly suspicious to have oncogenic effects in humans. This study investigates the presence of potentially oncogenic viruses such as SV40, JCV, BKV and EBV in patient-derived colorectal carcinoma (CRC) cells typifying all molecular subtypes of CRC.

Methods

Sample material (gDNA and cDNA) of a total of 49 patient-individual CRC cell lines and corresponding primary material from 11 patients, including normal, tumor-derived and metastasis-derived tissue were analyzed for sequences of SV40, JVC, BKV and EBV using endpoint PCR. In addition, the susceptibility of CRC cells to JCV and BKV was examined using a long-term cultivation approach of patient-individual cells in the presence of viruses.

Results

No virus-specific sequences could be detected in all specimens. Likewise, no morphological changes were observed and no evidence for viral infection or integration could be provided after long term CRC cell cultivation in presence of viral particles.

Conclusions

In summary, the presented data suggest that there is no direct correlation between tumorigenesis and viral load and consequently no evidence for a functional role of the DNA viruses included into this analysis in CRC development.