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Patients with human papillomavirus-associated oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPV-OPSCC) have a favorable prognosis and excellent overall survival (OS), and studies have demonstrated these findings in cohorts of predominantly White patients. Racial/ethnic (R/E) minorities, particularly Black patients, with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) have worse survival outcomes compared with White patients. In this study, we aimed to determine if Black patients with HPV-OPSCC have a similar favorable prognosis to the White population. This was a population-based retrospective cohort study that analyzed HNSCC patients using the National Cancer Database from 2010 to 2016. We identified patients with Stage I-IV HPV- OPSCC who were treated with radiation, surgery, chemotherapy, or a combination of modalities. Patient outcomes were stratified by R/E groups including White Versus Black patients. The main outcome in this study was OS. Analyses for proportions of categorical variables were performed using a χ 2  or Fisher's exact test. Univariate and multivariate time-to-event survival analyses were performed using Kaplan-Meier product limit estimates and log-rank test to test the differences between strata. A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to assess the association between covariates and risk of death (OS). We identified 9256 OPSCC patients who met inclusion criteria and were treated between 2010 and 2016, of which 7912 were White (85.5%) and 1344 were Black (14.5%). A total of 1727 were HPV-OPSCC, of which 1598 were White (92.5%) and 129 (7.5%) were Black. By race, the 5-year OS for White versus Black OPSCC patients was 42% versus 23%, respectively (log-rank, p < 0.0001). Among HPV-positive OPSCC patients, the 5-year OS for White versus Black patients was 65% versus 39% (log-rank, p < 0.0001). Among HPV-negative patients, the 5-year OS for White versus Black patients was 36% versus 13% (log-rank, p < 0.0001). On multivariate analysis, after accounting for age, sex, insurance status, income, Charlson-Deyo score, receipt of surgery, distance from facility, and total treatment time, Black race trended toward, but was not associated with worse survival. Hazard ratio (HR:1.24, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.85-1.81, p = 0.255). This national cohort study of OPSCC patients demonstrates that Black patients with HPV-OPSCC have a poor prognosis and OS similar to HPV-negative White patients. This may be partly due to socioeconomic barriers such as insurance and income. Further work is needed to better understand the specific drivers of inferior survival outcomes in this specific patient population., (© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Medical Virology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background and Objectives: Radiotherapy (RT) enables conservative surgery for soft tissue sarcoma (STS). RT can be delivered either pre-operatively (PreRT) or postoperatively (PORT), yet in some patients, neither approach is fully satisfactory (e.g., urgent surgery or wound healing risk prevents PreRT, yet PORT alone cannot cover the entire surgical field). We hypothesized that, in such situations, low-dose PreRT (LD-PreRT) would decrease the risk of intraoperative tumor seeding and thus permit PORT to a reduced volume (covering the high-risk tumor bed but not all surgically manipulated tissues)., Methods: We identified a single-institution retrospective cohort of 78 patients treated with LD-PreRT (10-30 Gy), resection, and PORT between 1980 and 2018., Results: At a median follow-up of 8.2 years, 8-year overall survival (OS) was 65.9%, disease-free survival (DFS) 50.5%, and local control (LC) 76.7%; in 45 patients with extremity/superficial trunk (E/ST) STS, 8-year LC was 80.9%. Both before and after propensity score adjustment, there were no differences in OS, DFS, or LC between this cohort and a separate cohort of 394 STS (221 E/ST-STS) patients treated with surgery and PORT alone., Conclusions: In patients for whom neither PreRT nor PORT alone is optimal, LD-PreRT may prevent intraoperative tumor seeding and enable PORT to a reduced volume while preserving oncologic outcomes., (© 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.)