Brachial plexopathy after chemoradiotherapy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

PURPOSE: To evaluate late brachial plexopathy after primary chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Consecutive 43 disease-free patients were evaluated by a specifically developed 26-item questionnaire. Retrospectively, the brachial plexus was delineated and the dose-volume histograms were calculated.

RESULTS: After a median follow-up of 24 months, no radiation-induced brachial plexopathy was reported in these 43 patients.

CONCLUSION: No radiation-induced brachial plexopathy was seen in the patient group, although 72.1% of the brachial plexuses received doses > 60 Gy. These findings should prompt further prospective studies and also stress the importance of trying to keep the doses to the brachial plexus as low as possible while covering the target volumes well.