Background: The purpose of this article was to present the Beth Israel Medical Center experience using high-dose-rate intraoperative radiotherapy (HDR-IORT) in the management of recurrent head and neck cancer.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of all patients with locally or regionally recurrent head and neck cancer who underwent HDR-IORT at our institution between 2001 and 2010.
Results: Seventy-six patients were identified who underwent treatment to a total of 87 sites after gross-total resection. The 2-year estimate of in-field tumor control was found to be 62%. Median overall survival was 19 months with 42% of the patients surviving at least 2 years. Significantly longer survival was found for patients achieving in-field control versus infield progression (33 months vs 17 months, respectively; p = .01).
Conclusion: HDR-IORT is well tolerated and associated with encouraging in-field disease control. In-field control is associated with improved survival. Further study is warranted to more fully investigate HDR-IORT in the salvage setting.
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