Early recurrence, time-to-recurrence, and recurrence patterns: Assessing their impact on survival outcomes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M-HNSCC) patients treated with first line platinum-based chemotherapy.

TTRI significantly influenced the survival, while recurrence patterns did not. In our study, the retrospective design limited our ability to definitively establish whether early recurrent R/M-HNSCC patients would benefit more from platinum-doublet. Despite poor prognosis, early recurrent patients benefited from 1L systemic treatments. Given the variation in prognoses, TTRI should be considered a stratification factor in future clinical trials.