The oligometastatic setting in HNSCC: A critical review by the Rete Oncologica Piemonte e Valle d'Aosta multidisciplinary team

Abstract

Introduction: The oligometastatic disease is a low burden metastatic disease that might still benefit from curable treatment. Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) is a complex group of malignancies, with high rates of loco-regional recurrences. Distant metastases are less frequent, and a single or few deposits are often observed (oligometastatic disease). The optimal management of oligometastatic HNSCC remains to be defined.

Materials and methods: Key references were derived from a PubMed query. Hand searching and clinicaltrials.gov were also used.

Results: This paper contains a narrative report and a critical discussion of the available evidence on the management of oligometastatic HNSCC patients, with a focus on metastasis-directed therapy (MDT), particularly stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR).

Conclusions: in line with literature data, the multidisciplinary evaluation emerged as the key element in the management of oligometastatic HNSCC patients.