Figure 1.

Analytical design for the determination of oral microbiome beta-diversity changes in radiation-treated head and neck cancer patients.

Comparisons of beta-diversity were carried out using transformed relative abundances (RA) or standardized RA fraction difference (RA-FD) to determine overall changes following radiation therapy (post-RT), changes occurring in clinically different subgroups, and changes characterizing DMFS[+] and DMFS[-] patients. Pts: HNC patients; T0: baseline time point prior to radiation therapy; Tx: T6 (6-months) or T18 (18-months) post-RT; AB: antibiotics; IC: Induction Chemotherapy; CC: Concurrent Chemotherapy. T0 to Tx corresponds to baseline to 6-months post-RT sampling (T0-T6), or baseline to 18-months post-RT sampling (T0-T18).