Among 94 patients diagnosed with malignant melanoma of the head and neck, 55 had tumor recurrence after initial treatment. Metastasis to regional lymph nodes occurred in 19 cases [1].

The survival rate after head and neck cancer for ≥ 10 years (2009-13) in England was 19-59% [2]. Suppression of lymph node metastasis alone can improve the relative survival rate.

We propose that the lymphatic drug delivery system can suppress tumor growth in sentinel lymph nodes to 1/10 to 1/100 with a dose of 1/10,000 or less compared to systemic administration, without significant side effects. Recently, by adjusting the osmotic pressure and viscosity of the solvent, we have succeeded in suppressing tumor growth in sentinel lymph nodes to < 1/1,000.

We would like to provide this method to many cancer patients suffering from lymph node metastasis, including head and neck patients, as soon as possible.  

Patterns of recurrence of the patients. Patients who had recurrent tumors were classified according to the recurrence pattern. There were 23 patients with local recurrence, 19 patients with regional lymph node recurrence, and 28 patients with distant metastasis. The number of patients who had 2 or 3 patterns of recurrences is also indicated in the overlapping area of the circles [1].

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22473987/

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References

[1] K. Shiga, T. Ogawa, T. Kobayashi, S. Ueda, A. Kondo, A. Nanba, S. Kuwashima, Y. Asada, S. Suzuki, T. Nagahashi, M. Takahashi, M. Suzuki, A. Ishida, K. Watanabe, Y. Harabuchi, T. Himi, H. Sinkawa, H. Sato, S. Saijo, S. Fukuda, K. Tanaka, K. Ishikawa, K. Omori, M. Aoyagi, S. Hashimoto, Malignant melanoma of the head and neck: a multi-institutional retrospective analysis of cases in northern Japan, Head Neck, 34 (2012) 1537-1541.
[2] Head and neck cancers survival statistics, Cancer Research UK, 2021.