Objective To assess the association between financial toxicity and survival in patients with
head and neck cancer (HNC). Materials and methods Using a single-institution database,
we retrospectively reviewed HNC patients treated at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer
Center treated with definitive or postoperative radiation therapy between 2013 and 2017.
Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank tests were used to analyze survival outcomes.
Propensity score matching on all clinically relevant baseline characteristics was performed …

Results A total of 284 patients who received either definitive (n= 204, 71.8%) or adjuvant (n=
80, 28.2%) radiation therapy. Chemotherapy was used in 237 patients (83.5%). Median
follow up was 39.9 months (IQR 33.4-51.3). Significant financial difficulties were reported by
41 patients (14.4%). On multivariable analysis, those with financial difficulties were
associated with worse overall survival (HR 1.81, p= 0.022) and cancer specific survival (HR
2.35, p= 0.002). A total of 70 patients were matched with well-balanced baseline …