The Copenhagen Model: Advancing multidisciplinary strategies for dysphagia and supportive care after head and neck cancer.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: This review highlights the growing need for coordinated, multidisciplinary survivorship models for individuals treated for head and neck cancer (HNC), as modern treatments have improved survival for the group but also led to a higher prevalence of complex, multisystem late sequelae. The importance of authorities and academic societies in incorporating rehabilitation as part of treatment in national cancer plans is reviewed. As healthcare systems strive to integrate hospital-based and community-based services, the balance between centralisation of specialisation and the desire for patient-centred care is challenged. The Copenhagen Model for HNC Rehabilitation, provides a structured and standardised framework for assessing patient needs, enhancing care coordination across sectors, and deliver specialised, patient-centred rehabilitation from the early postoperative period through late sequelae, salvage treatment, and advance care planning.

RECENT FINDINGS: Dysphagia remains one of the most frequent and burdensome late sequelae after treatment of HNC, contributing to impaired quality of life, airway protection problems, nutritional concerns, and emotional distress. The Copenhagen Model offers a structured model for managing late sequelae after surgically treated HNC by systematic patient stratification, home-based visits, and multidisciplinary efforts with comprehensive clinical assessments, identifying unmet rehabilitation needs and initiating interventions. This systematic approach has contributed to creating an increased focus on palliative care and advanced care planning and to a greater degree of refraining from treatment.

SUMMARY: Insights from this model suggest that structured, multidisciplinary team-based rehabilitation can enhance the detection of late effects, promote well tolerated and effective therapeutic strategies, and strengthen patient-centred outcomes in survivorship care. The clinical experience underscores the need for ongoing research to refine interventions, assess long-term functional outcomes, and optimise multidisciplinary collaboration in HNC rehabilitation. Additionally, patients' posttreatment experiences influence clinicians' perspectives on the scope of future treatments, underscoring the need for surgeons' participation in rehabilitation and importance of research into prehabilitation assessment and communication.