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Response Assessment and Follow-Up by Imaging in Head and Neck Tumours

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Imaging and Interventional Radiology for Radiation Oncology

Part of the book series: Medical Radiology ((Med Radiol Diagn Imaging))

Abstract

Accurate and timely response assessment and follow-up by imaging are pivotal for guiding radiotherapeutic management of head and neck cancer. Primarily, post-treatment imaging should aim to detect tumour recurrence as early as possible in order to maximize success of salvage surgery and determine the need for neck dissection. Second, post-treatment imaging has a pivotal role in the differentiation of tumour recurrence from toxicity-induced complication like necrosis or ulcerations and the detection of delayed onset of locoregional, metastatic recurrence and second primary cancers.

With the emerging—be it currently experimental—concepts of adaptive radiation treatment strategies, there is increasing interest for imaging assessment during the course of therapy, aiming to develop a non-invasive tool to identify patients who could benefit from treatment intensification and select patients for adaptive radiotherapy (especially important in proton radiotherapy) and aiming to identify tumour regions with suspected radioresistance.

The purpose of this chapter is to present an overview of the application of conventional, metabolic and microstructural imaging modalities in the response assessment and follow-up of head and neck cancer.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Vincent Vandecaveye

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Sandra Nuyts

  3. Department of Diagnostic Imaging (Radiology) and Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital San Pedro and Centre for Biomedical Research of La Rioja (CIBIR), Logroño (La Rioja), Spain

    Roberto C. Delgado Bolton

Authors
  1. Vincent Vandecaveye
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  2. Sandra Nuyts
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  3. Roberto C. Delgado Bolton
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roberto C. Delgado Bolton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Regina G.H. Beets-Tan

  2. Humanitas University and Humanitas Clinical and Research Center, Milan, Italy; Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Rijnstate Hospital, Arnhem, The Netherlands

    Wim J. G. Oyen

  3. Department of Radiology, Radiation Oncology and Hematology Fondazione Policlinico Universitario A.Gemelli IRCCS, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy

    Vincenzo Valentini

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Vandecaveye, V., Nuyts, S., Delgado Bolton, R.C. (2020). Response Assessment and Follow-Up by Imaging in Head and Neck Tumours. In: Beets-Tan, R., Oyen, W., Valentini, V. (eds) Imaging and Interventional Radiology for Radiation Oncology. Medical Radiology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38261-2_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38261-2_22

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