Outcomes of Routine Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy Quality Assurance in a Large Head and Neck Cancer Center

Treatment Package Time in Node-Positive Cutaneous Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…16 Furthermore, all IMRT treatment plans were subjected to a published pretreatment RT quality assurance protocol. 17 Overall, the locoregional control (5 years FFLRF, 76%) and overall survival (5 years OS, 62%) rates in our series of high-risk cHNSCC patients were comparable to other retrospective series of cHNSCC with regional lymph node involvement. 3,10,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] The most obvious weaknesses of this study are the limitations inherent to all retrospective studies, including the risk of bias and incomplete data.…”

Contralateral neck failure in oral tongue cancer: Outcomes from two centers using predefined treatment criteria

“…Second, both institutions included were high‐volume surgical centers, a factor shown to correlate with improved survival 19,20 . Adjuvant therapy was delivered at a single high‐volume HNC institution with strict quality assurance 14 which has also been shown to reduce the rate of noncompliant radiotherapy plans 21 . Third, although this study was conducted across two different institutions, there was a consistent surgical and radiotherapy policy to managing the contralateral neck.…”

“…PMCC provides the large majority of adjuvant treatment for patients treated surgically at both centers, and only cases where adjuvant treatment was delivered at PMCC were included. This was to ensure treatment was delivered at a high volume radiation oncology HNC center using the subsequently mentioned predefined treatment policy with an established radiotherapy quality assurance program 14 . All cases were discussed pre‐ and postoperatively at a multidisciplinary tumor meeting.…”

Quality of Life, Toxicity and Unmet Needs in Nasopharyngeal Cancer Survivors

“…The findings from Peters et al have spawned a generation of international consensus guidelines for HNC contouring and dose prioritization, including recommendations for NPC (87,88), and while they may have reduced the variation to some degree, they have not completely mitigated it (85). In addition, an increasing recognition of the importance of HNC case volume and expertise (89,90) and the value of peer-review in clinical practice (91,92) will have hopefully further reduced this variation. However, with the recent number of immunotherapy trials opening, there has been a concerning trend in the number of trials failing to include a comprehensive radiotherapy quality assurance program (93).…”