title: Effect of radiotherapy delay in overall treatment time on local control and survival in head and neck cancer: Review of the literature.
abstract: Treatment delays in completing radiotherapy (RT) for many neoplasms are a major problem affecting treatment outcome, as increasingly shown in the literature. Overall treatment time (OTT) could be a critical predictor of local tumor control and/or survival. In an attempt to establish a protocol for managing delays during RT, especially for heavily overloaded units, we have extensively reviewed the available literature on head and neck cancer. We confirmed a large deleterious effect of prolonged OTT on both local control and survival of these patients.
authors.affiliation: Cartuja Oncological Institute (IMO-Group), Américo Vespucio Street 31-33, 41092 Seville, Spain.
authors.forename: José A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: González Ferreira
authors.affiliation: Comprehensive Cancer Care Unit, Puerta del Mar and Puerto Real University Hospitals, Ana de Viya Avenue 21, 11009 Cádiz, Spain.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jaén Olasolo
authors.affiliation: IMO-Group Medical Director, República Argentina Square 7, 28002 Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Ignacio
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Azinovic
authors.affiliation: Institute of Lung Diseases, Sremska Kamenica, Serbia ; BioIRC Centre for Biomedical Research, Kragujevac, Serbia.
authors.forename: Branislav
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jeremic
keywords: Delays; Local control; Overall treatment time; Radiotherapy; Survival