Transoral Robotic Surgery in Treating Patients with Benign or Malignant Tumors of the Head and Neck

Inclusion Criteria

• Patient must present with indications for diagnostic or therapeutic approaches for benign and/or malignant diseases of the oral cavity or laryngopharynx (including the neoplastic lesions of the tongue, tongue base, retromolar trigone, tonsils, palate, posterior and lateral pharynx, glottic, supraglottic and subglottic larynx)
• Patients have adequate transoral exposure of the oral cavity and laryngopharynx for TORS instrumentation; transoral exposure may be evaluated pre-operatively via endoscopic procedure and/or indirect mirror exam; transoral exposure will also be confirmed intra-operatively/post-operatively based upon adequate anatomical visualization of operative field for TORS instrumentation; for the non-surgical arm: Patients planned to receive non- surgical treatment (e.g., chemo and/or radiation); the 7 surgical (TORS) arms include: Tonsil cancer: T1, Tonsil cancer: T2, Base of tongue cancer: T1, Base of tongue cancer: T2, Supraglottic cancer, Unknown primary cancer, and Other tumors. The 3 non-surgical arms are: Tonsil cancer, base of tongue cancer, and supraglottic / hypopharyngeal / other cancers
• Written informed consent and/or Consent waiver by institutional review board (IRB)

Exclusion Criteria

• Unexplained fever and/or untreated, active infection
• Patient pregnancy
• Previous head and neck surgery that would preclude transoral/robotic procedures; this is at the investigator’s discretion; this is not an exclusion criterion for the non-surgical arm
• The presence of medical conditions contraindicating general anesthesia or transoral surgical approaches; this is not an exclusion criterion for the non-surgical arm
• Inability to grant informed consent
• INTRAOPERATIVE EXCLUSION CRITERIA:
• Inability to adequately visualize anatomy to perform the diagnostic or therapeutic surgical approach transorally; should a patient consented with intent of enrollment on the surgical arm meet this exclusion criterion, TORS may not be completed and patient will be ineligible for the surgical arm; if patient is to receive non-surgical therapy (i.e., radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, etc.), they may be considered for the non-surgical arm