Radiation Therapy Treatment Outcomes for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer: a Tertiary Care Centre Experience in a Tier Three Town

To report the outcomes of patients with head and neck squamous cell cancers (HNSCC) who received radiotherapy as a part of their first line treatment. All patients treated with radiotherapy for HNSCC between 2013 and 2017 were retrospectively identified from the department records. Patients with follow-up of less than 3 months following primary treatment were excluded. The demographic, disease and outcome details were retrieved from the patients' hospital records. The disease free survival (DFS) was estimated with Kaplan-Meier analysis, and effect of different variables on DFS were compared using log-rank test. The late toxicities of treatment were also recorded and reported. A total of 311 patients were found to be eligible. Most patients were males (82%), and oral cavity cancers predominated (45.3%). 237 patients (76.2%) had locally advanced disease at presentation. Radiotherapy was used as definitive treatment for 152 patients (48.9%). At a median follow up of 14.8 months (range: 3-85.2 months), the estimated Disease-Free Survival (DFS) was 52.7 months (95%CI: 37.7-67.7 months). Locally advanced disease correlated with a significantly lower median DFS (61.2 vs. 32.8 months; p = 0.01), but other factors, including gender, use of concurrent chemotherapy and adjuvant vs definitive radiotherapy appeared to have no statistical association with DFS. 181 (58.2%) patients had chronic RT-related toxicities at last follow-up, but most were generally mild, most frequently subcutaneous fibrosis (48.6%, which occurred significantly more frequently in patients receiving adjuvant RT following surgery- 40.8% versus 57.2%; p = 0.03) and xerostomia (32.4%). Radiation induced osteoradionecrosis was rare, occurring in only three (1%).Most HNSCC patients present with locally advanced disease, where disease control remains poor. Though there is substantial toxicity following treatment, the risk of severe toxicities with modern radiotherapy is low.