Disease-free time stratification in locally recurrent head and neck carcinoma after definitive radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy.

PURPOSE There is no standard definition of disease-free interval before local recurrence after treatment in head and neck carcinoma (HNSCC). We evaluated an easy-to-use stratification and its association with survival in a large cohort of patients. METHODS We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of prognostic variables in 325 HNSCC patients with a local recurrence after definitive radiotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Endpoints were overall survival (OS) and post-recurrence survival (PRS). RESULTS Variables associated with the survival were the patient age (OS p   5 years). CONCLUSION In HNSCC patients, time to local recurrence is a prognostic variable that can be defined using an easy-to-use stratification.