Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) is one of the cancers with the highest incidence rate in the world. Due to the presence of postoperative recurrence and resistance to some chemotherapeutics after the surgery, the prognosis of advanced HNSCC patients is not optimistic. Therefore, it is urgent to improve the efficiency of chemotherapeutics for HNSCC and the prognosis of HNSCC patients. Recent studies have found that ferroptosis has regulatory effect on the growth and proliferation of some types of tumor cells, reducing drug resistance in tumor treatment to a certain extent, and showing great potential in the prevention and treatment of tumors. Therefore, this article will summarize the anti-tumor mechanism of ferroptosis and the current research progress in HNSCC, providing new evidence for the treatment of HNSCC.

Objective:To illustrate the diagnosis and treatment of carotid body tumor (CBT) based on our experience of previous patients.Methods:A total of 92 patients with CBT who received surgery between October 2003 and October 2017 were included to summarize the operation process and experience and obsever the postoperative follow-up, postoperative complications and prognosis.Results:92 patients (102 lesions) in total, 27 lesions were categorized into Shamblin grade Ⅰ, 37 were grade Ⅱ, and 28 were grade Ⅲ. Surgical resection of CBT was performed for 63 lesions, resection of CBT and the external carotid artery was performed for 28 lesions, and resection of CBT and the internal carotid artery was performed for 1 lesion. No hemiplegia was observed. Hoarseness and bucking were observed in 2 patients of Shamblin grade Ⅲ, and were eliminated 1 month subsequent to the administration of hormone therapy and a nerve-nurturing strategy. No relapse or mortality was observed during the follow-up.Conclusions:Surgical resection of CBT is recommended following diagnosis. The evaluation of imaging features and cerebral collateral circulation is important for treatment.

Objective:To study the role of autophagy-associated gene regulation FK506 binding protein 1A (FKBP1A) in the regulation of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC).Methods:TCGA was used to analyze the gene expression difference between HNSCC and normal tissues, and the DAVID was employed to perform functional annotation of differently expressed autophagy-associated genes enrichment in HNSCC. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to find genes that were meaningful for the prognosis of HNSCC patients in TCGA; the Gene Expression Comprehensive Database (GEO) was employed to verify the prognosis of the screened gene; the prognosis of HNSCC patients was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier Plotter.Results:Compared with the normal tissues samples, a total of 38 genes significantly changed in HNSCC tissues. These differential genes were mainly distributed in autophagy-associated pathways in biological processes (BP), cellular components (CC) and molecular functions (MF) in GO analysis. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis found that 18 autophagy-associated genes were significantly correlated with the prognosis of HNSCC patients in the TCGA database. Among them, the high-risk genes were verified in the GEO database, and found that FKBP1A was closely related to the prognosis of HNSCC patients. Immunohistochemistry and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) assays showed that the expression of FKBP1A in patients with HNSCC was higher than that of the corresponding adjacent tissues, and was closely related to the stage of HNSCC.Conclusions:This study used integrated bioinformatics methods to study the role of autophagy-associated genes in the occurrence and development of HNSCC. Moreover, the screened biomarker, FKBP1A, is closely related to the prognosis of HNSCC, and provide the theoretical basis for the pathogenesis and potential treatment of HNSCC.

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy. Methods Eighteen patients with thymic diseases or myasthenia gravis (MG) received video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) of either total thymectomy (7 patients) or extended thymectomy (11 patients with MG) from September 2002 to June 2004. Results Thoracoscopic thymectomy was accomplished in 17 patients and a conversion to open mini-incision (7 cm) operation was needed in 1 patient. Postoperative temporary mechanical ventilation (