Upfront surgery or definitive radiotherapy for p16+oropharyngeal cancer. A GETTEC multicentric study

Background: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the initial therapeutic strategy on oncologic outcomes in patients with HPV-positive OPSCC. Methods: All p16-positive OPSCCs treated from 2009 to 2014 in 7 centers were retrospectively included and classified according to the therapeutic strategy: surgical strategy (surgery +/- adjuvant radiotherapy and chemotherapy) vs. non-surgical strategy (definitive radiotherapy +/- chemotherapy). Univariate, multivariate propensity score matching analyses were performed to compare overall (OS), diseasespecific (DSS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS). Results: 382 patients were included (surgical group: 144; non-surgical group: 238). Five-year OS, DSS and RFS were 89.2, 96.8 and 83.9% in the surgical group and 84.2, 87.1 and 70.4% in the non-surgical group, respectively. These differences were statistically significant for DSS and RFS after multivariate analysis, but only for RFS after propensity score matching analysis.

Automated summary

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of initial therapeutic strategy on oncologic outcomes in patients with HPV-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. The results showed that surgical strategy demonstrated significant differences in disease-specific and recurrence-free survival compared to non-surgical strategy, especially after multivariate analysis.