The Center for Cancers of the Head and Neck at the University of Texas Medical Branch brings together our comprehensive cancer care resources, allowing our physicians to deliver world-class care to patients with tumors of the head and neck.
State of the art care such as ours, although efficient at managing these challenging diseases, still fails to produce a cure for more than 40% of patients. Because of this simple fact, our faculty engages in aggressive research with the hope it will improve early diagnosis and treatment outcomes for our patients.
Specifically, members of our team are pursuing investigations into the molecular biology of oncogene mutations in head and neck cancer, the molecular mechanisms important for lymphatic metastasis, and development of novel peptide compounds with activity against this disease. Furthermore, we have active clinical trials assessing the effects of novel drugs on the effects of radiation and the collection of tumor samples for the assessment of novel tumor markers which may help expedite future drug studies.
Other clinical studies at our center focus on assessing swallowing outcomes associated with radiation and surgery treatments for these tumors. We expect that better understanding of the effects of therapy on swallowing function will help develop modifications that may improve this important functional outcome.
Funding this important work is always a challenge, one that has become even greater in recent times given the dwindling sources of federal funds for research. Increasingly, it is the generous gifts we receive from our patients, patients’ families, and community that fuel our efforts. It is for this reason, that I encourage you to browse our research link to learn a bit more about the efforts we are applying to forward care for patients with these difficult diseases.
I encourage you to become a part of our team by making a contribution to help defray the cost of this important work. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or suggestions.
Vicente A. Resto, M.D., Ph.D.
Vicente Resto, M.D.,
Ph.D