Are there new treatments for tonsil cancer?
M. D. Anderson has been using a combination of radiation and molecular targeting agents called EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) inhibitors, which I explain to my patients like this: The receptor is like a docking station for EGF, a type of growth hormone. Cancer cells overproduce these docking stations, so they can absorb more of that growth factor. If we can block that docking station using the EGFR inhibitor, then the cancer will die or stop growing.
