Background: The purpose of this analysis is to evaluate whether postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) at the same facility as surgery portends to better survival outcomes compared to PORT given at a different facility.
Methods: Patients underwent upfront surgery at the National Cancer Database reporting facility followed by PORT. PORT was coded as performed at either the same facility or at a different facility as surgery.
Results: A total of 10 832 patients were selected. Five-year overall survival (OS) was higher in patients undergoing PORT at the same facility: 52.5% vs 48.4% (P < 0.001). PORT performed at the same facility was associated with improved OS under multivariate (HR, 0.92; P = 0.01) and propensity score matched (hazard ratio, 0.90; P = 0.004) analyses.
Conclusions: OS was better among patients with head and neck cancer who received PORT at the same facility as surgery.
Keywords: National Cancer Database (NCDB); facility location; oral cavity cancer; outcomes; postoperative radiation therapy (PORT).
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.