Jacobi C, et al. - In view of a possible higher risk of carotid blowout syndrome [CBS: a life-threatening complication of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC)] following chemoradiation (CRT), researchers performed this longitudinal analysis of different treatment strategies. They divided 1072 patients with HNSCC into groups depending on whether they had experienced CBS. Outcomes revealed that patients with HNSCC rarely experience CBS. After adjustment for UICC stage, the groups had comparable OS, whereas the unaltered patients had better mean recurrence-free survival. Local recurrence, T status, and CRT were noted to be independent risk factors for mortality related to CBS.