Impact of Postoperative Radiation Therapy Delay and Treatment Facility Location on Survival in Head and Neck Cancer Patients

Abstract

Background: Time from surgery to initiation of postoperative radiation therapy (PORT) of less than 6 weeks was recently instituted as the first quality metric within head and neck cancer care. Methods: We performed a retrospective single institution cohort study to investigate predictors of PORT delay and the impact of PORT delay on survival. Results: PORT delay rate was 73.2%, with a median time to treatment initiation of 51 days. Outside radiation facility treatment was independently associated with increased likelihood of PORT delay (OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.03–3.74, p = 0.043). PORT delay and location of radiation treatment did not impact OS or PFS. Conclusions: In this single institution study, most patients experienced PORT delay. Patients that were treated at outside radiation facilities were more likely to experience delay. However, PORT delay did not result in statistically significant difference in OS and PFS which contrasts with the current literature.