Postoperative radiotherapy of intermediate-risk head and neck cancer in 134 patients: Does subset matter?

Approximately 9% to 42% of people with head and neck cancer (HNC) belong to the intermediate-risk (IR) class. The benefit of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) may not be uniform across various patient subgroups of IR-HNC. Our 134-patient experience retrospectively explores the issue of which IR-HNC patient subset (T3-T4 or nodal metastases without extracapsular spread/ECS) may benefit from PORT. Particular attention should be paid to a more intensive adjuvant regimen of chemoradiotherapy for the nodal metastases ECS-free patient cohort because of the poorer disease-free survival after PORT alone that was observed in the present study. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.