Long-term Swallowing Problems After Organ Preservation Therapy With Concomitant Radiation Therapy and Intravenous Hydroxyurea

Abstract

Prolonged and debilitating functional swallowing abnormalities may occur after this aggressive concomitant chemotherapy and radiotherapy regimen.

Functional Outcomes Following Chemoradiotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer

“…Surprisingly, primary site does not predict outcomes in this cohort of 196 patients. This finding agrees with that of Smith et al, 10 who also find primary site fails to predict severity of dysfunction. Eisbruch et al 16 conclude that neither tumor T classification, the presence of a tracheotomy tube, nor the dose of chemotherapy affected posttreatment aspiration.…”

Swallow Function in Patients Before and After Intra‐Arterial Chemoradiation

“…The reported percentage of patients who have received chemotherapy and concomitant RT and eventually require gastrostomy tube feedings varies considerably between studies. 4,6,10,11 Our finding that 64% of patients took less than 50% of nutrition orally and relied on gastrostomy tube feedings is fairly consistent with other reports. The majority of patients (64%) experienced severe acute mucositis (grades III and IV) at the completion of RT treatments.…”

Decreased Short- and Long-term Swallowing Problems With Altered Radiotherapy Dosing Used in an Organ-Sparing Protocol for Advanced Pharyngeal Carcinoma

“…Most patients within the study resumed some form of oral alimentation, albeit recreational rather than nutritive in many of the 74.4-Gy patients, and the data are presented in Table 3. As was the case in previous reports, 8,10 hypopharyngeal narrowing was present in nearly one third of the patients in both groups (74.4 Gy vs 60.0 Gy, 33% [6/18] vs 36% [4/11]). In the 60.0-Gy patients, however, there were no incidents of complete stenosis, allowing oral alimentation.…”