Does p16 status influence your decision when choosing between surgery and definitive chemo-RT for head and neck patients?
Is there data to support that surgery works better than chemo-RT in p16 negative patients?
Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Academic Institution
I am assuming that when you say "surgery" you are specifically referring to transoral robotic or transoral laser surgeries and not the traditional mandible- splitting surgeries for oropharyngeal cancers.Currently p16 status does not make a difference in offering transoral surgery to patients. FDA ap...
Answer from: Radiation Oncologist at Community Practice
To follow-up on @Farzan Siddiqui's final point regarding the absence of randomized data on "surgical intensification" for p16-negative oropharyngeal cancers, our recent NCDB analysis observed similar overall survival for cT1-2N1-2b p16-negative OPSCC patients receiving upfront surgical therapy (~60%...