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Review
. 2015 Sep-Oct;20(5):328-39.
doi: 10.1016/j.rpor.2015.05.010. Epub 2015 Jul 4.

Effect of radiotherapy delay in overall treatment time on local control and survival in head and neck cancer: Review of the literature

José A González Ferreira  1 , Javier Jaén Olasolo  2 , Ignacio Azinovic  3 , Branislav Jeremic  4
Affiliations
Review

Effect of radiotherapy delay in overall treatment time on local control and survival in head and neck cancer: Review of the literature

José A González Ferreira et al. Rep Pract Oncol Radiother. 2015 Sep-Oct.

Abstract

Treatment delays in completing radiotherapy (RT) for many neoplasms are a major problem affecting treatment outcome, as increasingly shown in the literature. Overall treatment time (OTT) could be a critical predictor of local tumor control and/or survival. In an attempt to establish a protocol for managing delays during RT, especially for heavily overloaded units, we have extensively reviewed the available literature on head and neck cancer. We confirmed a large deleterious effect of prolonged OTT on both local control and survival of these patients.

Keywords: Delays; Local control; Overall treatment time; Radiotherapy; Survival.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
(Panel A) Daily loss of LRC (%). (Panel B) Weekly loss of LRC (%). One NS report showed a loss in LRC of 12% per week (Budihna, as in Fowler '92), not included in the figure. (Panel C) Time factor. From this figure, one value from Table 2 has been removed, γ/α: 2·69 Gy/d, considered to be unrealistic by the author. (Panels A, B, and C) A line connecting two symbols represents a range between both symbols, rather than a single value, as published by corresponding authors (see Table 2). (Panel C) A symbol with an up-arrow represents a value ‘greater than’ that indicated by the symbol, as published by the corresponding authors (see Table 2).
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