Treatment Interruption and Outcomes in Head and Neck Cancer

For patients undergoing (chemo)radiotherapy (RT) for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, are treatment interruptions associated with outcomes?In this secondary analysis of 3 randomized clinical trials with 1549 patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, RT interruption was associated with increased locoregional failure and shorter survival compared with no interruption. Analyses did not indicate an effect modification by human papillomavirus (HPV) status, so the hazard ratio for RT interruption was estimated across HPV-related and HPV-unrelated tumors, and covariate-adjusted predictions showed that the absolute effect of a treatment interruption was higher for patients with HPV-unrelated tumors.The study results suggest that treatment interruptions are associated with outcomes in patients with HPV-related and HPV-unrelated head and neck cancers, with the strength of the association varying by HPV status and clinical characteristics.

Corresponding Author: Michelle Mierzwa, MD, Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, 1500 E Medical Center Dr, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (mmierzwa@med.umich.edu).

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