Deglutition preservation after swallowing (SWOARs)-sparing IMRT in head and neck cancers: definitive results of a multicenter prospective study of the Italian Association of Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology (AIRO)

•Deglutition preservation after SWOARs-sparing IMRT.•Doubly clinical benefit of SWOARs-sparing IMRT on RT and Cancer-related dysphagia.•Lack of correlation between PROS and objective deglutition measures. To investigate changes of objective instrumental measures and correlate with patient reported outcomes (PROs) of radiation-induced dysphagia (RID) after swallowing organs at risk (SWOARs)-sparing IMRT. Patients (pts) underwent Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES), Videofluoroscopy (VFS) and M.D. Anderson Dysphagia Inventory (MDADI) questionnaire at baseline, 6 and 12 months after treatment. They were categorized in two groups: MDADI-C ≥ 80 and MDADI-C