This week's artwork was donated by Lonny, a pediatric cancer patient who received treatment at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia . National Cancer Institute Treatment option overview Depending on the site and extent of the primary tumor and the status of the lymph nodes, the treatment of lip and oral cavity cancer may be by surgery alone, radiation therapy alone, or a combination of these.
Some general considerations are as follows.
If regional nodes are positive, cervical node dissection is usually done in continuity. With modern approaches, the surgeon can successfully ablate large posterior oral cavity tumors and with reconstructive methods can achieve satisfactory functional results. Prosthodontic rehabilitation is important, particularly in early-stage cancers, to assure the best quality of life. Radiation therapy for lip and oral cavity cancers can be by external-beam therapy or interstitial implantation alone, but for many sites the use of both modalities produces better control and functional results. Small superficial cancers can be very successfully treated by local implantation using any one of several radioactive sources, by intraoral cone radiation therapy, or by electrons.