The impact of treatment package time on survival in surgically managed head and neck cancer in the United States.

Objectives: Delays in the initiation of postoperative radiation have been associated with worse outcomes; however, the effect of the overall treatment package time (interval from surgery through the completion of radiation) remains undefined. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of package time on survival and to evaluate this effect among different subgroups of head and neck cancer patients.

Patients And Methods: In this observational cohort study, the National Cancer Database was used to identify 35,167 patients with resected nonmetastatic head and neck cancer who underwent adjuvant radiation from 2004 to 2014.