title: Survival and overall treatment time after postoperative radio(chemo)therapy in patients with head and neck cancer.
abstract: Generally, overall treatment time for patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer should be as short as reasonably possible. This analysis was undertaken to determine at what overall treatment time additional survival/locoregional control benefits could be achieved compared to a 100-day cutoff.
  
  
  
  Clinical impact of overall treatment time was assessed in 272 patients by multivariable Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analyses using the historical 100-day cutoff and the optimal overall treatment time, determined using recursive partitioning analysis. Survival endpoints were determined for the 100-day and optimal overall treatment times validated using bootstrap resampling.
  
  
  
  Recursive partitioning determined the optimal overall treatment time as 87 days. In the 87-day multivariable analysis, adverse factors for overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were overall treatment time ≥87 days and extracapsular spread, and overall treatment time and R1 status, respectively.
  
  
  
  Overall treatment time is important for survival in patients with head and neck cancer. Completing treatment within as short a timeframe as possible may be associated with longer OS and DFS. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: 1058-1065, 2016.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Silke
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tribius
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Donner
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pazdyka
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Münscher
authors.affiliation: Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gröbe
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Cordula
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Petersen
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Krüll
authors.affiliation: Martini Clinic, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tennstedt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D059186:Chemoradiotherapy, Adjuvant; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003663:Decision Trees; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D000077195:Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: adjuvant radiochemotherapy; disease-free survival; locally advanced head and neck cancer; overall treatment time; survival