Recent advances in radiation therapy for head and neck cancer.

The treatment of locally advanced or recurrent head and neck cancers has improved from single modality interventions of surgery and radiation therapy alone to include combined modality therapy with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Combined therapy has led to improved local control and disease-free survival. New developments in radiation oncology such as altered fractionation, three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy, charged-particle radiotherapy, neutron-beam radiotherapy, and brachytherapy have helped to improve this outlook even further.