Swallowing difficulties negatively impact QOL. It is recommended that future QOL studies aimed specifically at swallowing function in NPC use a swallowing specific questionnaire (eg, SWAL-QOL) in addition to a head and neck-specific measure. Further research is needed to look at the adaptation and usefulness of swallowing-specific QOL surveys for use with people treated for NPC.

The use of complementary and alternative medicine by head and neck cancer patients is common, regardless of efficacy or cost. Clinicians should routinely ask patients about their use of complementary and alternative medicine, to facilitate communication and enable appropriate use of such medicine.

Objectives: The respective roles of platinum-based chemotherapy and cetuximab therapy in the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) have yet to be strictly defined. This study investigates the patterns of recurrence for patients with HNSCC treated with cetuximab versus noncetuximab therapies.Methods: Retrospective case-control study at a tertiary academic practice. Patients with recurrent HNSCC that received primary non-surgical therapy between 2006 and 2009 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were stratified by treatment into 2 primary groups: 14 patients who received cetuximab plus radiotherapy and 30 patients who received non-cetuximab radiotherapies. The 2 groups were compared, and the primary endpoint was the time to locoregional recurrence. Subgroup analysis was performed for the non-cetuximab radiotherapy group.Results: Overall stage (P = 0.423), T stage (P = 0.190), smoking history (P =1.000), alcohol use (P = 0.498), and comorbidity based on ASA score (P = 1.000) were not significantly different between the 2 groups. Patients in the cetuximab group were on average older; 68.9 versus 61.3 years old (P = 0.049). Median time to recurrence for the cetuximab group was 5.3 ± 3 months versus 8.7 ±6 months for non-cetuximab patients (P = 0.020); subgroup analysis showed 10.7 ± 7.3 months till recurrence for the concurrent chemoradiotherapy subgroup (P = 0.023). None of the patients in the cetuximab group were disease-free for one year or longer.Conclusions: Patients with recurrent HNSCC treated primarily with cetuximab and radiotherapy alone have a significantly shorter time to recurrence than patients treated with conventional therapies.Objectives: Both chemo-reirradiation and reirradiation alone have been shown to be feasible treatment options for recurrent, unresectable head and neck cancer in an irradiated field. However, no randomized controlled studies have been performed to compare their efficacy. Our goal was to compare the survival and toxicity rates among patients treated with chemoreirradiation and reirradiation.Methods: A Pubmed search was performed using the search terms: re irradiation, previously irradiated, reirradiation, reirradiation and head and neck neoplasms [Mesh]. Two observers identified the full manuscripts which fulfilled the inclusion criteria: recurrent or second primary head and neck cancer, prior irradiation, no surgery, and no targeted therapy. Median overall survival (OS), 1-year OS, and toxicity between reirradiation alone and chemo-reirradiation groups were compared using Mann-Whitney-U test.Results: Of 473 papers identified, 15 papers were included: 11 papers (n = 567) reported median OS, and 13 papers (n = 601) reported 1-year OS. Median age of the patients and radiation dosage delivered were similar between the groups. Average 1-year OS was 44.1% (n = 214) in the reirradiation group and 47.2% (n = 387) in the chemo-reirradiation group (P = 0.42). Average median OS was 12 months in the reirradiation group (n = 162) and 10.6 months in the chemo-reirradia...