Head and Neck Cancer Surgery
Chad A. Zender,
MD, Director
The head and neck surgery division at Loyola University Medical Center is dedicated to providing cutting edge treatment in a compassionate fashion to patients with disorders of the head and neck. The division is lead by Dr. Chad Zender who specializes in treating both benign and malignant tumors of the head, neck and skull base. He is trained in both ablative (tumor resection) and reconstructive surgery.
At Loyola University Medical Center we have all the disciplines needed for the comprehensive treatment of head and neck malignancies including malignancies of the upper aerodigestive tract, salivary malignancies, sinus malignancies, skull base malignancies, endocrine malignancies and malignancies involving the skin of the head and neck including melanoma. Our group includes board certified and fellowship trained otolaryngologists proficient in both traditional and minimally invasive techniques used in the surgical management of head and neck cancer patients. We continue to push the forefront in treating skull base tumors using transnasal endoscopic skull base surgery (TNSBS). When oncologically appropriate we also use the LASER for the endoscopic resection of laryngeal and pharyngeal cancers, decreasing recovery time for patients.
At Loyola we approach tumors of the head and neck in a multidisciplinary fashion. Our team includes otolaryngologist, radiation and medical oncologists and neurosurgeons. Understanding that our patients have needs that go beyond the operating room our team also includes a group of specialized nurses, speech and language therapist, physical therapist and social workers all specially trained to help patients with head and neck cancer. We have radiologists and pathologists as well as surgeons that form a team for the identification and analysis of sentinel nodes in the treatment of melanoma. At Loyola University Medical Center we also have radiation oncologists who are experienced in the use of intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), three dimensional treatment planning and brachytherapy as well as traditional external beam radiation therapy.
The primary goal when dealing with malignant tumors of the head and neck is to cure patients of their disease while preserving/restoring as much function and quality of life as possible. To achieve this goal multiple techniques are utilized and a unique team has been created to treat not only the physical aspects of the disease, but also to treat the human spirit.
Clinical Trials
Loyola University Medical Center is a SWOG site. We also have institutional
protocols for our head and neck oncology patients. For a current listing
of active protocols, please visit Loyola
Medicine's web site.
Research
The Department of Otolaryngology at Loyola University Medical Center collaborates
with other departments on campus as well as off-site to advance the research
in head and neck cancer. Some of the projects in which we are involved include:
- Phong Le research
- Mark Lingen research
Apoptosis signaling causes genomic instability leading to loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in a tumor, near-diploid cell line. CM Bier-Laning PI, MO Diaz co-PI
