Indian clinical practice post-treatment imaging guidelines for head-and-neck cancers

Abstract

Expected post-treatment (post-surgery, post-radiotherapy, post-chemoradiotherapy, post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy/immunotherapy) changes and related complications, pose challenges at follow-up imaging of head-and-neck cancers including the neck nodes, which have implications on further management. Hence, it is pertinent to establish post-treatment head-and-neck imaging guidelines, including the proper choice of modality, protocol, and timing of scan post-treatment, for the detection of recurrence or response assessment. Though international guidelines exist, there are no such standardized guidelines in the country, hence we propose post-treatment head-and-neck cancer imaging guidelines, including surveillance guidelines for neck nodes, to bring about uniformity in post-treatment imaging of head-and-neck cancers in the country.