What are your top takeaways in Head & Neck Cancers from ASCO 2026?

The study by Nair et al., ASCO 2026 (AREST), will be quite intriguing when published. First and foremost, there will hopefully be a better definition of the irradiated “at-risk neck nodal region” in these patients who only underwent ipsilateral NDs. Probably the buccal patients had ipsilateral radiation only, while, less clear, I suspect the same for the oral tongue patients. This is always a challenge in more limited radiation; understanding what regional recurrence in particular means, as if t...

Here are a couple of studies that I thought deserve comment:

The group from Tata Memorial Hospital presented a prospective randomized study of post-op RT or observation in patients with pT1-2N0 with one or more intermediate risk factors (Nair et al., ASCO 2026). The patients underwent surgery with adequate margins and at least ipsilateral neck dissections, and were stratified for several risk factors (depth of invasion: > or <5 mm, site, PNI/LVI, and differentiation). 3-year LRFS was 89% in the a...

• I think Abstract 103, the impact of reduced-dose RT for hPV+ oropharyngeal, is by far the most impactful.
• The post op phase III randomized oral cavity cancer trial that showed post-op RT improves locoregional control is important.