HNOP offers multi-disciplinary, collaborative and integrated evaluation and care for patients with head and neck cancers.

• Organ preservation approaches to head and neck cancer.
• New drugs for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and extending uses of existing drugs to HNSCC and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
• Advanced radiation therapy techniques that limit toxicity and improve outcomes.
• Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgery
• Stem cell work that extends the findings of the first paper, demonstrating the existence of “cancer stem cells” in HNSCC by researchers from Stanford and Michigan in 2007; and a 2009 Stanford study establishing that stem cell properties of patients’ malignancies correlate with prognosis. This work led to subsequent stem cell papers in 2011 and 2012.
• Normal tissue stem cell studies to identify salivary gland stem cells and to manipulate them for preservation and/or restoration of salivary gland function from radiation damage.
• HNOP’s breadth of research studies and protocols including treatment of intermediate and advanced disease as well as hypoxia imaging.

• Creation of the first head and neck multidisciplinary tumor patient conference (tumor board; 1976) in the U.S.
• Introduction of the first use of chemotherapy with irradiation for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), which is the basis of organ-preservation chemoradiation in the U.S.
• Close working relationships with:
  • Neurosurgery, Interventional Radiology, and Neuroradiology,which are critical for complex open and endonasal endoscopic skull base surgery.
  • Endocrinology in the treatment of thyroid cancer.
  • Dermatology in the treatment of advanced skin cancers.
• Innovative research by physicians now at Stanford that demonstrates the utility of the FDA-approved Mobetron for intraoperative radiation therapy.
• Contributing research in a Phase II trial of immunotherapy in intermediate and advanced surgically-treated HNSCC. A Phase III trial is now planned.
• Leadership in the head and neck disease site committee of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group to develop new nation-wide clinical trials in head and neck cancer.
• Biomarker studies to identify novel circulating biomarkers for prognostication and post-treatment surveillance in head and neck cancer.
• Strong links to developmental therapeutics such as the advancement of new drugs to treat cancer.
• Provision of a full range of treatment options that include minimally invasive surgery, robotic surgery, stereotactic radiosurgery such as CyberKnife, microvascular reconstruction, intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT), and new chemotherapy trials.