• Virginia Wedell Osborn, Babak Givi, Justin Rineer, Dylan Roden, Niki Sheth, Ariel Lederman, Evangelia Katsoulakis, Kenneth Hu, and David Schreiber.
• Department of Veterans Affairs New York Harbor Healthcare System, New York, New York.
• Head Neck. 2018 Jun 1; 40 (6): 1254-1262.

BackgroundPostoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) is considered standard of care in patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer with positive margins and/or extracapsular extension (ECE).MethodsThe National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) was queried to identify patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck with stages III to IVB disease or with positive margins and/or ECE diagnosed between 2004 and 2012 receiving postoperative radiotherapy (RT). Using univariable and multivariable logistic and Cox regression, we assessed for predictors of CRT use and covariables impacting overall survival (OS), including in a propensity-matched subset.ResultsOf 12 224 patients, 67.1% with positive margins and/or ECE received CRT as well as 54.0% without positive margins and/or ECE. The 5-year OS was 61.6% for RT alone versus 67.4% for CRT. In the propensity-matched cohort, OS benefit persisted with CRT, including in a subset with positive margins and/or ECE but not without.ConclusionPostoperative CRT seems underutilized with positive margins and/or ECE and overutilized without positive margins and/or ECE. The CRT was associated with improved OS but the benefit persisted only in the subset with positive margins and/or ECE.© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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