Is there a maximum time delay in offering adjuvant radiation to patients with wound healing issues for sarcoma and skin cancer patients with aggressive histology and positive margins?

A recent large NCDB review of 35,000 patients with resected nonmetastatic HNC who underwent postop RT found that the interval from surgery to the end of RT was a significant factor in overall survival, with interval of 11 weeks or less conferring best survival compared with longer intervals, especially for oropharyngeal and advanced stage tumors. While delays in RT due to comorbidity or tumor-related factors affecting survival cannot be excluded in this retrospective analysis, this study suggests that for a 6-week postop RT course, an interval of 4-5 weeks or less from surgery to starting RT is best.

In my experience of a few cases, starting RT in patients with surgical scars which have not been completely healed, but that have started heali...