Aspiration pneumonia after concurrent chemoradiotherapy for head and neck cancer. Cancer Xu, B., Boero, I. J., Hwang, L., Le, Q., Moiseenko, V., Sanghvi, P. R., Cohen, E. E., Mell, L. K., Murphy, J. D. 2015; 121 (8): 1303-1311

Abstract

Aspiration pneumonia represents an under-reported complication of chemoradiotherapy in patient with head and neck cancer. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the incidence, risk factors, and mortality of aspiration pneumonia in a large cohort of patients with head and neck cancer who received concurrent chemoradiotherapy.Patients who had head and neck cancer diagnosed between 2000 and 2009 were identified from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database. Aspiration pneumonia was identified from Medicare billing claims. The cumulative incidence, risk factors, and survival after aspiration pneumonia were estimated and compared with a noncancer population.Of 3513 patients with head and neck cancer, 801 developed aspiration pneumonia at a median of 5 months after initiating treatment. The 1-year and 5-year cumulative incidence of aspiration pneumonia was 15.8% and 23.8%, respectively, for patients with head and neck cancer and 3.6% and 8.7%, respectively, for noncancer controls. Among the patients with cancer, multivariate analysis identified independent risk factors (P

View details for DOI 10.1002/cncr.29207

View details for PubMedID 25537836