A multidisciplinary workshop focusing on upper aerodigestive cancers is proposed. The workshop is to encourage interaction among scientists and clinicians. It is to demonstrate that the understanding of head and neck cancer carries with it implications which influence our understanding of the majority of environmentally induced cancers. Furthermore, given that patients with head and neck cancer are at risk of second primary neoplasias including cancers of the lung and digestive tract, to understand and prevent these second malignancies provides a mechanism to integrate basic science advances regarding environmental carcinogenesis with clinical studies utilizing a discrete cancer-prone population. The head and neck cancer model thus provides a cost effective and efficient mechanism to test the validity of strategies of detection and prevention of environmentally induced cancers. The multifactorial nature of environmental carcinogenesis and its prevention will be stressed in this workshop. Sessions on genetic susceptibility, virology, carcinogenesis, and molecular epidemiology will be combined with clinical sessions on strategies of therapeutic intervention and the problem of second primary malignancies. The purpose is to draw from these same individuals perspectives that will further the current understanding and care of the head and neck cancer patient.
