Salvage surgery for recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck: Systematic review and meta-analysis

The present study aims to estimate a pooled hazard ratio (HR) comparing overall survival (OS) for salvage surgery compared to nonsurgical management of recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). PubMed/MEDLINE and Embase-Ovid were searched on March 5, 2020, for English-language articles reporting survival for salvage surgery and nonsurgical management of recurrent HNSCC. Meta-analysis of HR estimates using random effects model was performed. Fifteen studies reported survival for salvage surgery and nonsurgical management of recurrence. Five-year OS ranged from 26% to 67% for the salvage surgery groups, compared to 0% to 32% for the nonsurgical management groups. Six studies reported HRs comparing salvage surgery to nonsurgical management; the pooled HR was 0.25 (95% CI [0.16, 0.38]; p < 0.0001). Selection for salvage surgery was associated with one quarter of the mortality rate associated with nonsurgical management in light of confounding factors including subsite and treatment intent.