Radiotherapy for Oral Cavity Cancer

According to the National Cancer Registry of Taiwan, head and neck cancer was the fourth most common cancer and the cancer with the fourth highest mortality rate in 2011. Seventy-five percent of head and neck cancers in Taiwan are oral cavity cancers. Therefore, oral cavity cancer is an important health issue in Taiwan. Surgery is the main treatment modality, but various combinations of surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy may also be used depending on the disease presentation and pathologic findings. For unresectable tumors, primary radiotherapy is the treatment of choice. Intensity-modulation, image guidance, and adaptive radiotherapy procedures can improve the radiation dose delivery and precision of the treatment. Brachytherapy and proton therapy can confine the radiation dose in limited area, which is an advantage in radiotherapy for some oral cavity cancers. In this review, we discuss the application of radiotherapy in oral cavity cancer and the advantages of different radiotherapy techniques.