New imaging scans track down persistent cancer cells

Head and neck cancer patients may no longer have to undergo invasive post-treatment surgery to remove remaining cancer cells, as research shows that innovative scanning-led surveillance can help identify the need for, and guidance of, neck dissection.

The study from the Universities of Birmingham and Warwick and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire used advanced imaging to identify cancer cells still present after treatment of head and neck cancer with primary chemoradiotherapy.

Previous guidelines meant that all head and neck cancer patients have to undergo neck dissection surgery, a three-hour operation with considerable morbidity and up to a one week hospital stay, because there was no reliable way to identify which patients still had remaining cancer cells.

The use of positron emission tomography