The diagnosis of thyroid pathologies is usually made by cytologic analysis of the fine needle aspiration (FNA) material. However, this procedure has a low sensitivity at times, presenting a variation of 2-37%. The application of optical spectroscopy in the characterization of alterations could result in the development of a minimally invasive and non-destructive method for the diagnosis of thyroid diseases. Thus, the objective of this work was to study the biochemical alterations of tissues and hormones (T3 and T4) of the thyroid gland by means of molecular vibrations probed by FT-Raman spectroscopy. Through the discriminative linear analysis of the Raman spectra of the tissue, it was possible to establish (in percentages) the correct classification index among the groups: goitre adjacent tissue, goitre nodular region, follicular adenoma, follicular carcinoma and papillary carcinoma. As a result of the comparison between the groups goitre adjacent tissue versus goitre nodular region, an index of 58.3% of correct classification was obtained; this percentage was considered low, and it was not possible to distinguish the Raman spectra of these groups. Between goitre (nodular region and adjacent tissue) versus papillary carcinoma, the index of correct classification was 64.9%, which was considered good. A relevant result was obtained in the analysis of the benign tissues (goitre and follicular adenoma) versus malignant tissues (papillary and follicular carcinomas), for which the index was 72.5% and considered good. It was also possible, by means of visual observation, to find similar vibrational modes in the hormones and pathologic tissues. In conclusion, some biochemical alterations, represented by the FT-Raman spectra, were identified that could possibly be used to classify histologic groups of the thyroid. However, more studies are necessary due to the difficulty in setting a standard for pathologic groups.

Testing for the BRAF mutation does not help in deciding whether or not to perform CND.

To evaluate the regional recurrence (RR) rate in a consecutive series of patients with node-positive head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (N ϩ HNSCC) who underwent selective neck dissection (SND) as part of their treatment in a single institution. Design: Retrospective case series with 2 years of follow-up. Setting: Tertiary care university hospital. Patients: One hundred ninety-one patients with N ϩ HNSCC underwent 256 neck dissections (NDs) between 1999 and 2002. Of these, 17 had unilateral SNDs and 11 had bilateral NDs (6 patients, bilateral SND; 5 patients, radical ND and SND). There were 22 men and 6 women, ranging in age from 37 to 79 years (median age, 53 years), with 17 laryngeal, 5 hypopharyngeal, 4 oral cavity, 1 oropharyngeal, and 1 nasopharyngeal primary tumors, which were classified as follows: T1 (n=2 [7.1%]), T2 (n=2 [7.1%]), T3 (n=7 [25.0%]), and T4 (n=17 [60.8%]). The neck stages were N1 (n=8 [28.6%]), N2a (n=2 [7.1%]), N2b (n=7 [25.0%]), and N2c (n=11 [39.3%]). Most patients had tumors that were stage III (14.3%) or stage IV (85.7%) and had undergone post

Among patients who already have advanced cancers, tumor volume can significantly impact their prognoses. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 39: 960-964, 2017.

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