Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 7-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Delayed Postoperative Radiotherapy in Head & Neck Cancers—A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

Delayed Postoperative Radiotherapy in Head & Neck Cancers—A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis INTRODUCTIONDelays in cancer treatment are common worldwide and may negatively impact patient outcomes.1 Timeliness of care is a crucial indicator of the quality of oncological care. Delays in head and neck cancer (HNC) treatment are not only common, but they have also been associated with tumor progression and worse survival outcomes.2,3 Timeliness of care can be assessed through a continuum of intervals: from symptom onset to initial consultation, from diagnosis to treatment initiation (DTI), from surgery to initiation of adjuvant postoperative radiotherapy (SPORT), and a more comprehensive assessment looking at the time from surgery to completion of PORT (TPT; treatment package time). The frequent need for sequential and complex multimodal therapy, including surgery followed by radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy, leads to treatment interruptions and delays.4,5 Moreover, barriers to accessing care related to the social determinants of health further compound this issue.4The Commission on Cancer (CoC) has a single quality metric for HNC patients: an interval <42 days between surgery and PORT. Exceeding this threshold increases the risk of locoregional recurrence.6,7 However, this guideline statement relies on a systematic review and meta‐analysis (SRMA) published over two decades ago, which was based on limited quality data that did not include overall survival outcomes. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Laryngoscope Wiley

Delayed Postoperative Radiotherapy in Head & Neck Cancers—A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

Download PDF
8 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/delayed-postoperative-radiotherapy-in-head-neck-cancers-a-systematic-iEgJO9SVIm

References (91)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2025 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.
ISSN
0023-852X
eISSN
1531-4995
DOI
10.1002/lary.31990
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONDelays in cancer treatment are common worldwide and may negatively impact patient outcomes.1 Timeliness of care is a crucial indicator of the quality of oncological care. Delays in head and neck cancer (HNC) treatment are not only common, but they have also been associated with tumor progression and worse survival outcomes.2,3 Timeliness of care can be assessed through a continuum of intervals: from symptom onset to initial consultation, from diagnosis to treatment initiation (DTI), from surgery to initiation of adjuvant postoperative radiotherapy (SPORT), and a more comprehensive assessment looking at the time from surgery to completion of PORT (TPT; treatment package time). The frequent need for sequential and complex multimodal therapy, including surgery followed by radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy, leads to treatment interruptions and delays.4,5 Moreover, barriers to accessing care related to the social determinants of health further compound this issue.4The Commission on Cancer (CoC) has a single quality metric for HNC patients: an interval <42 days between surgery and PORT. Exceeding this threshold increases the risk of locoregional recurrence.6,7 However, this guideline statement relies on a systematic review and meta‐analysis (SRMA) published over two decades ago, which was based on limited quality data that did not include overall survival outcomes.

Journal

The Laryngoscope – Wiley

Published: May 1, 2025

Keywords: head and neck cancer; postoperative radiotherapy; quality metric; squamous cell carcinoma; treatment delay

There are no references for this article.