Head and neck cancer is a disease that affects the mouth, nose, sinuses, throat and lymph nodes in the neck. If it detected early enough, is treatable through surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, though because of its location, patients are often required to go through extensive rehabilitation.

Now, researchers have found an alternative approach to battling this form of cancer. Using a genetically modified herpes virus, doctors have successfully treated patients when used in conjunction with conventional treatment. The combination therapy was able to destroy the tumors in most of the patients.

The virus has been engineered to selectively enter only cancer cells and not healthy ones. One inside, it begins killing the tumor cells internally while also producing proteins that activate the immune system.

In the study, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, 17 patients were administered the virus in addition to standard cancer treatment, which included surgical removal of the tumor. Following therapy, 93% of the patients given the virus showed no signs of the cancer, and after more than two years, 82 percent of the patients had not succumbed to the disease.

The findings are particularly relevant in light of the fact that approximately 35 to 55 percent of cancer patients who undergo standard chemotherapy and radiation treatment usually relapse within two years.

The researchers indicate that there were no safety concerns regarding the use of the virus and the long-term goal was to use this approach to treat other types of cancer. With this in mind, more research studies are planned, including the use of the virus at different stages of the disease.

Scientists developed the therapy in the hopes of addressing a major problem that doctors run into with head and neck cancer. Though there exist effective ways in treating this form of cancer when it is diagnosed early enough, more than 70 percent of the tumors are not detected until they have progressed to an advanced stage.

Each year in this country, more than 35,000 people are diagnosed with cancer of the mouth or pharynx and more than 12,000 contract cancer of the larynx. It has been estimated that in the United States, nearly a quarter of a million people are survivors of oral or pharyngeal cancer.

Men are 89 percent more likely to contract the disease then women, and are twice as likely to die from it. Though the exact cause is not clear, smoking and tobacco use are a known risk factors and are linked to up to 85 percent of head and neck cancer cases.

If you have questions or concerns, speak with your doctor. For more information about head and neck cancer, visit the website for the National Cancer Institute.