Comparison of imaging in lymph node staging after primary radio- or radiochemotherapy of advanced head and neck cancer - First insights of the prospective-multicentric HN-Onkoimage-1-trial

Introduction A salvage neck dissection (ND) after primary radio(chemo)therapy (RCT) of advanced HNSCC should be reserved for patients with a vital residual tumor. In this regard, the predictive power of various imaging systems has not been sufficiently clarified. Within the scope of this study, the importance of different imaging systems for re-staging 3 months after RCT is to be examined further. The results of the interobserver validation (IOV) are described in relation to problems of the study implementation and evaluation.