The biological mechanisms of cancer and associations with behavior of tumours need to be studied to understand progression and determine appropriate treatments. Here we investigated expression of VEGF, MMP-9 and E-cadherin in laryngeal SCCs and their relations with clinical behavior. This prospective study was based on 38 surgical specimens from patients with primary laryngeal SCC and data recorded in their cards. Expression of the three factors in tumor tissue was examined using immunohistochemistry and correlations with clinical parameters of primary tumors, regional lymph node metastases, stage of disease, histopathologic differentiation, and vascular/cartilage invasion were investigated. Regarding the cases with positive MMP-9 expression, the difference between well and moderately/poorly differentiated tumors was statistically significant. However, differences between early stage (stage I and II) and late-stage (stage III and IV) tumours, and between positive and negative for pLN metastasis were not. No significant relationship between positive VEGF and tumor differentiation or stage was apparent, but E-cadherin levels significantly differed between well and moderately/ poorly differentiated tumours and with the presence of pLN metastasis. E-cadherin staining did not vary between MMP-9 positive and negative cases. In conclusion, MMP-9 may be a negative predictor of differentiation in laryngeal SCC, while E-cadherin is a predictor of differentiation and nodal metastases. Even if the difference between VEGF expression and tumor stage was not statistically significant, it seems that there exists some relationship, which might be clarified with a greater number of cases.

Mucociliary activity, the primary defence mechanism of the respiratory epithelium, is significantly depressed in smokers. Our findings showed that the said depression is not associated with the number of cigarettes smoked, duration of smoking or nicotine dependence.

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Swallowing difficulty items in PD patients involved anxious, phobic and somatic symptoms associated with swallowing. In addition, swallowing difficulty symptoms in PD patients can be confounded with eating disorder symptoms.

Koanal polipler, sinüs mukozasından kaynaklanıp nazal boşluğa doğru çıkan, iyi huylu soliter lezyonlardır. Adlandırma kaynaklandığı sinüse göre yapılır. Sfenokoanal polip (SKP) oldukça nadir görülür ve sfenoid sinüsten kaynaklanıp sfenoetmoid resesten geçerek nazofarenks ve orofarenkse uzanır. Anterior rinoskopide antrokoanal poliplerle karıştırılabilir. Bilgisayarlı tomografi ve nazal endoskopi bu iki koanal polip tipinin ayrımında önemlidir. Endoskopik yaklaşımla SKP'in kaynakladığı mukoza ile birlikte tamamen çıkarılması oldukça güvenli olup nüks açısından minimal riske sahiptir. Bu çalışmada, sfenokanal polibi bulunan ve bu kitlesi endoskopik transnazal cerrahi ile çıkarılan, 30 yaşında bir erkek hasta bildirdik. Hastanın postoperatif 9 aylık takibinde rekürrens saptanmadı.