Kawakita D, Abdelaziz S, Chen Y, et al. - In the present study, the researchers assessed the incidence of respiratory disease diagnoses in head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors in comparison with cancer-free people. In addition, they analyzed risk factors for respiratory disease among HNC survivors. From 1996 to 2012, 1,901 HNC patients diagnosed in the Utah Cancer Registry were identified. Up to 5 cancer-free people from the general population (n = 7,796) were matched to each HNC survivor by birth year, gender, birth state, and follow-up time. For HNC survivors, the median follow-up times were 4.5 years and for the general population cohort 7.8 years. The authors discovered that the risks of respiratory infection, COPD and bronchiectasis, and aspiration pneumonitis among HNC survivors were higher than over 5 years after cancer diagnosis among the general population cohort. The risk of adverse respiratory outcomes among HNC survivors was related to age at diagnosis, baseline BMI, gender, baseline smoking status, treatment modality, primary site, and stage. To prevent the occurrence of adverse respiratory outcomes among HNC survivors, multidisciplinary care is required.