Human papilloma virus in head and neck carcinoma

Major head and neck cancer surgery for blation and reconstruction is increasingly eing performed in elderly patients (>65 ears). There has been concern in the UK hat some treatments are altered to provide ure but withholding prolonged surgical rocedures due to the risk of post operative omplications. In fact 48% of patients diagnosed with ead and neck cancer annually in the UK re over the age of 75 years (classified as very old’). The eligibility of such patients or curative surgery is often tempered by otions such increased failure rate which ay or may not be evidence-based. This as given rise to the notion of ‘adaptive urgery’ – whereby surgical protocols are runcated. Methods: We retrospectively analysed cohort of elderly head and neck cancer atients operated on at our busy regional entre over the last 5 years. We compared hem to a younger population matched for athology and surgical protocol to assess