Current Approaches to Salvage Surgery for Head and Neck Cancer: A Comprehensive Review

SIMPLE SUMMARY: As of today, salvage surgery regarding head and neck cancer remains a challenge for patients, surgeons, and oncologists. Indeed, even though several advances have been made in the last few years, the results in terms of both survival and complications are disappointing. Therefore, it remains important to be aware of the latest emerging techniques and understand their limits to make progress in this field. In addition, the patient’s conditions play a major role in the outcome of salvage surgery, so identifying the various factors influencing the results can help improve these approaches. This review will walk us through the latest literature on salvage surgery, and it will help us understand the several difficulties touching this last treatment resort. ABSTRACT: Salvage surgeries of head and neck cancer are often complicated and do not always show decent results. This type of procedure is tough on the patient, as many crucial organs can be affected. A long period of reeducation usually follows the surgery because of the need to rehabilitate functions such as speech or swallowing. In order to lighten the journey of the patients, it is important to develop new technologies and techniques to ease the surgery and limit its damages. This seems even more crucial since progress has been made in the past years, allowing more salvage therapy to take place. This article aims at showing the available tools and procedures for salvage surgeries, such as transoral robotic surgery, free-flap surgery, sentinel node mapping, and many others, that help the work of the medical team to operate or obtain a better understanding of the status of the cancer when taken in charge. Yet, the surgical procedure is not the only thing determining the outcome of the operation. The patient themself and their cancer history also play an important part in the care and must be acknowledged.