Supportive treatment in head and neck cancer

Abstract

Progress in diagnosis and therapy acheved in the last decades has not resulted in a significant improvement
of therapeutic results in patients with head and neck cancer. Standard therapeutic methods, i.e. surgery
and radiotherapy, give good results with early stage patients, in other cases they are not satisfactory,
and therapy applied poses high risk of undesirable effects. Supportive therapy allowing for the decrease
in the percentage of complications is still a challenge for an oncologist. It should be conducted by an
interdisciplinary team. Optimization of measures allows for the avoidance of serious complications and
improves patients’ comfort of life.