Treatment modalities, adverse events, and survival outcomes in older patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Background Chemoradiation with curative intent in older adults with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) has been a challenge, because of its potential toxicities. Methods We selected primary HNSCC cases from the SEER‐Medicare linked database, assessed overall survival (OS) and adverse events and their associations with different treatments, across four age groups including the youngest (66–69 years) and the oldest (≥80 years). Results Better OS was associated with chemoradiation compared to radiation alone, not only in all patients (N = 5879) (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.82, p