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. 2023 Aug;45(8):2108-2119.
doi: 10.1002/hed.27401. Epub 2023 May 16.

Influence of time between surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy on prognosis for patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: A systematic review

Kaiyuan Sun  1 , Jia Yan Tan  1 , Peter James Thomson  2 , Siu-Wai Choi  3
Affiliations

Influence of time between surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy on prognosis for patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: A systematic review

Kaiyuan Sun et al. Head Neck. 2023 Aug.

Abstract

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.

Keywords: head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; patient prognosis; postoperative radiotherapy; radiotherapy; time interval.

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References

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