Ingarfield K, et al. - Using different survival approaches, researchers examined long-term survival from head and neck cancer (HNC). Study participants were followed-up from the Scottish Audit of Head and Neck Cancer. Using the Kaplan–Meier method, overall survival and disease-specific survival were calculated. There were a total of 1820 patients in the study. Data reported that overall survival at 12 years was 26.3% and disease-specific survival at 12 years was 56.9%, as well as net survival at 12 years was 41.4%. Long-term survival determinants included age, stage, modality of treatment, performance status of the WHO, alcohol consumption, smoking behavior, and anatomical site. Investigators recommend that net survival for HNC patients be used for long-term outcomes — it disrupts other causes of death that are overestimated in overall survival and underestimated in disease-specific survival.