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In response to Natural history and management of fanconi anemia patients with head and neck cancer: A 10‐year follow‐up
Author(s) -
Kutler David I.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the laryngoscope
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.181
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1531-4995
pISSN - 0023-852X
DOI - 10.1002/lary.25878
Subject(s) - fanconi anemia , otorhinolaryngology , medicine , natural history , citation , head and neck cancer , head and neck , cancer , general surgery , library science , surgery , computer science , biochemistry , chemistry , dna repair , gene
I want to thank Dr. Alter and Dr. Rosenberg for their letter to the editor and for shedding light on some important topics pertaining to our article. We agree that Fanconi anemia (FA)–associated head and neck cancer has a poor prognosis and that surgery is an important treatment modality, especially because these patients do not tolerate high doses of radiation and/or chemotherapy. Unfortunately, FA patients have a high rate of cancer recurrence and secondary malignancies, which affect their long-term survival. Therefore, it is important that these patients have careful surveillance in order to identify their cancers at an early stage. In addition, we are also in complete agreement that further studies are needed to evaluate the mechanisms of carcinogenesis in this unique patient population. Larger cohorts of FA patients from multiple institutions should be studied to help understand how best to treat these patients.