Individualised follow-up for head and neck cancer-design of a prospective cohort study to assess its feasibility.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

It is a common practice for many cancer types to monitor patients after treatment to detect new disease manifestations early. For head and neck cancer (HNC), however, long-term routine follow-up is up for debate for several reasons. The benefits of prolonged routine follow-up on survival have not been proven. Also, cancer follow-up is putting increasing pressure on healthcare resources due to rising incidence and survival rates. Therefore, this study investigates a novel follow-up approach among HNC patients, giving them the opportunity to choose their own follow-up programme.

Methods and analysis

HNC patients are offered a decision-aided choice between standardised or individualised follow-up after 1.5 years of uncomplicated guideline-prescribed follow-up. Stan

SUBMITTER: van de Weerd C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9806091 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature