Influence of time between surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy on prognosis for patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: A systematic review.
Aria Kaiyuan SunJia Yan TanPeter James ThomsonSiu-Wai ChoiPublished in: Head & neck (2023)
The timing of postoperative radiotherapy following surgical intervention in patients with head and neck cancer remains a controversial issue. This review aims to summarize findings from available studies to investigate the influence of time delays between surgery and postoperative radiotherapy on clinical outcomes. Articles between 1 January 1995 and 1 February 2022 were sourced from PubMed, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect. Twenty-three articles met the study criteria and were included; ten studies showed that delaying postoperative radiotherapy might negatively impact patients and lead to a poorer prognosis. Delaying the start time of radiotherapy, 4 weeks after surgery did not result in poorer prognoses for patients with head and neck cancer, although delays beyond 6 weeks might worsen patients' overall survival, recurrence-free survival, and locoregional control. Prioritization of treatment plans to optimize the timing of postoperative radiotherapy regimes is recommended.
Keyphrases
- early stage
- locally advanced
- free survival
- end stage renal disease
- radiation induced
- radiation therapy
- patients undergoing
- minimally invasive
- newly diagnosed
- chronic kidney disease
- ejection fraction
- randomized controlled trial
- prognostic factors
- coronary artery bypass
- squamous cell carcinoma
- case control
- surgical site infection
- patient reported