The Medicare Effect on Head and Neck Cancer Diagnosis and Survival

Is it challenging to comply with the guidelines on the timely initiation of PORT?

“…This would help in adherence to the treatment protocol, as a recent study shows that head and neck cancer patients with health insurance are more likely to be diagnosed early and have reduced cancer-specific mortality compared with the uninsured. 4 Similar to what has been discussed by the authors, we too feel the problem can be reduced to some extent if every patient is discussed in a multidisciplinary team at baseline, and as soon as the patient gets operated on, he should be referred for radiation, as simulation and planning also take time. To complete this channel, another important fact is that good surgical line healing is a mandatory criterion for radiation on the surgical bed.…”