Importance of dose in palliative treatment for incurable head and neck cancer with radiotherapy

Purpose To identify predictors of palliation for head and neck cancer treated with the “Hypo Trial” hypofractionated radiation therapy regimen in a clinical setting. Design/Method We retrospectively assessed 106 consecutive patients with incurable cancer, treated between January 2008 and December 2018. Regimen used was 30‐36Gy in 5‐6 biweekly fractions of 6Gy. Results The prescription dose was 30Gy in 57 (53.8%) patients and 36Gy in 49 (46.2%) patients. 89.6% patients completed the prescribed treatment. With a median follow‐up of 6.92 months, 79.2% of the patients experienced clinical palliation. Palliation was correlated with the radiation therapy dose (P = 0.05). Median overall and progression‐free survival (OS, PFS) were 7 and 4.63 months, respectively. Achieving palliation was associated to OS (P = 0.01). Conclusions This short palliative hypofractionated scheme resulted in a high rate of palliation, with excellent compliance and acceptable toxicity. Our results show that radiation dose is a predictive factor for palliation.