FIGURE 1.

Flow chart of study population. The total study population included all adult patients with primary head and neck cancers offered treatment at our institution between January 2012 and December 2017 (n = 1462). A chart review was performed for the 126 patients that delayed their start of treatment for 12 weeks or more. Following exclusion of palliative patients, patients that died prior to start of treatment, and patients referred to other institutions, the remaining patients were considered the study population of interest (n = 68) since they were offered treatment of curative intent and delayed such treatment. The reasons for treatment delay, or no start of treatment, were explored and categorized. Nineteen patients pursued Alternative Medicine (AM), and 49 patients delayed treatment due to other reasons, as listed in the attached box to the left. To facilitate comparisons of the AM patients with the normal timeline (<12 weeks) patients, brief characteristics such as age, gender and the most common tumor primary sites are outlined in the attached boxes to the right. AM, alternative medicine; F, female; M, male; n, number; Tx, treatment