Organized Head and Neck Cancer Care

Advanced head and neck cancer (HNC) treated with curative intent is often managed with a combination approach that may include surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy (Forastiere et al. 2001). While these options offer the potential for better patient outcomes, they create complex organizational challenges and are associated with signifi cant toxicities that can complicate the treatment course, threaten long-term functionality, and adversely affect health-related quality of life (HRQL). This chapter presents an eight-step process for organized HNC care (Fig. 28.1). targeted therapy to radiation has shown improvement in locoregional control and survival but is associated with skin and other toxicities (Bonner et al. 2006).

The logistics of multimodality therapy present organizational challenges in the scheduling of appointments, procedures, and treatments across the continuum. More important, novel developments for the treatment of HNC, the serious side effects associated with these regimens, and the consequences they can have on functional ability and HRQL demand a specialized multidisciplinary approach to HNC care (Licitra et al. 2006; Dingman et al. 2008).