ArticleCureus2024
Quantification of Radiation-Induced Fibrosis in Head and Neck Cancer Patients Using Shear Wave Elastography.
Article in Cureus, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Systemic Copper Chelation Reduces Collagen Deposition and Preserves Secretory Function in Irradiated Mouse Salivary Glands.Advances in radiation oncology · 2026Article
- Normal tissue complication probability modeling of radiation-induced neck fibrosis in head and neck Cancer survivors: a patient-reported outcome-based analysis.Clinical and translational radiation oncology · 2026Article
- Article
- Shear-Wave Elastography as an Objective Diagnostic Tool for Capsular Contracture After Breast Implant Surgery: A Comparative Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Radiation-Induced Fibrosis (RIF) in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC): A Review.Cells · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background Radiation-induced fibrosis (RIF) is a common side effect in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients treated with radiotherapy. A validated tool to measure RIF does not currently exist. In this study, we evaluate the ability of shear wave elastography (SWE) to measure RIF in HNC survivors. Methods HNC patients treated with surgery and adjuvant radiation between January and September 2022 at a single tertiary medical center were enrolled with age and gender-matched control patients. Median tissue stiffness was recorded with SWE at the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscle, overlying subcutaneous tissues (ST), and the base of the tongue (BOT). Results A total of 20 patients were included. Tissue stiffness was significantly higher among HNC patients at the SCM ipsilateral (53.7 kPa vs. 17.5 kPa, p=0.002) and contralateral (44.1 kPa vs. 21.6 kPa, p=0.027) than the side of treatment. Tissue stiffness was not significantly different in ST ipsilateral (6.6 kPa vs. 5.3 kPa, p=0.922) or contralateral (8.0 kPa vs. 6.4 kPa, p=0.426) to treatment. Tissue stiffness at the BOT was not significantly different (19.1 kPa vs. 13.1 kPa, p=0.084). Conclusion SWE is a noninvasive method for measuring tissue fibrosis and is a promising tool for the measurement of RIF in patients with HNC. SWE measurements were taken from the SCM, ST, and BOT in HNC patients at least one year out from treatment with surgery and adjuvant radiation as well as age and gender-matched control patients. HNC patients showed significantly higher levels of tissue stiffness at the SCM both ipsilateral and contralateral to radiotherapy. SWE may be useful for tracking the progression of RIF in HNC patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.