Sindhar S, et al. - Researchers performed this cohort study of 651 patients, for determining the value of adding preoperative functional performance to other well-recognized clinical factors in predicting outcomes following surgical treatment of head and neck cancer. Findings revealed an independent association of poor preoperative functional performance, high comorbidity burden, preoperative weight loss, and advanced tumor stage with worse patient outcomes after head and neck cancer surgery. When these 4 variables were combined to create a composite clinical severity staging system, greater severity stage was identified to be associated with adverse outcomes.