Parotid Patient Q & A

It is parotid patient question and answer day at Parotid Tumor Podcast! Patients often share the same worries, concerns, and experiences as they navigate this diagnosis and treatment. Patients also have many of the same questions about the process, and the future diagnosis and treatment possibilities.  

In this episode, Dr. Eric J. Moore; Chair, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Mayo Clinic; Rochester, Minnesota, joins me to answer patient questions on a variety of parotid related topics. Dr. Moore will be sharing important information about potential causes of parotid tumors, diagnostic tests, lymph nodes, recurrences, and much more!

Listen in as fellow parotid patients, and Dr. Moore help us educate and empower patients!

Key Talking Points of the Episode:

Bilateral Parotid TumorsCell phone usage and parotid tumorsLymph node removal during parotid surgerySurgical Incisions Parotid Tumor RecurrencesParotid Tumor Research 

Key Quotes from the Episode:

“The vast majority of the evidence has not been able to associate cell phone usage with parotid gland tumors.”

“I do actually think we are going to get there with big data, and artificial intelligence that I think we will be able be able to make accurate diagnoses of parotid gland tumors just by imaging alone once we get a big enough data set that we can correlate with pathology. That would be a big step forward I think.”

“The only real way to ensure that a lymph node is malignant or benign is by histopathology- looking at it under the microscope- and seeing those changes in the cell associated with benign or malignant.”

“Every treatment we can deliver in medicine-so we’ll talk specifically about surgical treatment- has some expected, immediate, and delayed side effects, and then there are some idiosyncratic side effects that don’t occur in everybody, and some complications that don’t occur in everybody that can lead to more side effects.”

“There is not a known test, or imaging study to do to predict the potential for a benign tumor to transform into a malignant tumor in the parotid gland.”

“Do I think the recurrence rates are going up? No, I don’t. There is no evidence for that right now. In fact, I think they have gotten better over the past several decades, but it remains to be seen what the new style of partial parotidectomy, and new enthusiasm for that does to recurrence rates.”

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