Management of complications of radiotherapy of the head and neck.

It can be seen from this short review that radiation therapy is a double-edged sword--truly life saving and cancer curing but carrying with it the certainty of morbidity. In the majority of patients treated by irradiation, this morbidity is minimal. In the unusual patient in whom there is a significant complication of irradiation, there will be an alteration in quality of life that cannot be documented by words or figures but rather requires caring for this patient. My only request of the reader is that he or she recognizes that the use of irradiation to treat cancer of the head and neck carries with it lifetime implications for both patient and physician and therefore should not be chosen without due thought and indication.