Non-curative care options for patients with advanced-stage head and neck cancer: Current state of the science and future opportunities

Head and neck cancer (HNC) often requires complex management and care. While the primary goal of treatment is curative, some advanced cases require consideration of non-curative pathways to optimize patients' quality of life (QOL) and survival. This narrative review describes important aspects of palliative care and highlights strategies for employing these non-curative options in HNC.

We identified peer-reviewed articles on the state of palliative care in HNC and its implementation. We searched for articles using terms including "palliative care," "non-curative care," "comfort care," "head and neck cancer," and "head and neck squamous cell carcinoma."

HNC is associated with a high disease burden; patients report high levels of pain, and both disease and treatment often compromise ability to carry out activities of daily living. There exist several non-curative routes of treatment, including palliation of symptoms, acute end-of-life (EOL) care, and hospice and home care. These care options provide comfort and optimize QOL of patients. Unfortunately, non-curative care could be misconstrued as withdrawal of treatment, or the provider team "giving up" on patient; these misconception can discourage patients from embracing palliative measures designed to alleviate symptom burden. Proper physician-patient communication, normalization, and early incorporation of these non-curative strategies into mainstream treatment could potentially ease patient concerns, and, eventually in EOL cases, help patients achieve dignified deaths.

Patients with HNC have unique palliative care needs due to their complex treatment and symptom burden. Early incorporation of non-curative plans such as palliative care alongside active treatment could help reduce symptom burden. Clinicians should strive to build trusting relationships with patients with HNC and effectively communicate with them about palliative care options. Guidelines that include such recommendations can help physicians regularly introduce palliation into the realm of active HNC treatment for advanced/incurable disease.