The 2010 Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium was held in Arizona on February 25-27, 2010 and sponsored by the American Head and Neck Society, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, and Society of Nuclear Medicine. Expertise from various fields spanned topics that included diagnosis and management of skull-base malignancies; discovery and integration of biomarkers in clinical trials; organ preservation and functional outcomes; patient-centered care initiatives; functional imaging for head and neck cancer; and the treatment of recurrent disease. This meeting was informative and provocative in reporting the latest advances in the management of head and neck cancer. It provided the opportunity to gather expertise for interdisciplinary discussion and especially illustrated the challenges in managing these complex and heterogeneous diseases.