Postoperative radiotherapy of head and neck squamous cell cancer / 中国癌症杂志

ABSTRACT

The postoperative pathological status of head and neck cancer is the determining factor for the use of radiotherapy. It is still unknown whether the interval between operation and postoperative radiotherapy has any impact on local control of the disease.However, from the radiobiological point of view, early postoperative radiotherapy is preferred, especially for patients with high-risk factors. Research has shown that concurrent chemoradiotherapy could improve the local control rate、overall survival rate and disease-free survival rate for head and cancer without surgery. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy was also recommended to the postoperative patients even though the acute toxicities might be increased significantly, but no evidence showed that it would aggravate late injuries including second primary neoplasm. The role of modern radiation technology and targeted therapy in adjuvant treatment of head and neck cancer needs to be further clarified.