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Curative-Intent Aggressive Treatment Improves Survival in Elderly Patients With Locally Advanced Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma and High Comorbidity Index.

ABSTRACT: For locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), therapeutic decisions depend on comorbidity or age. We estimated the treatment outcomes of patients with different Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) scores and ages to determine whether aggressive treatment improves survival.Data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance and cancer registry databases were analyzed, and we included >20-year-old patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage III or IV HNSCC (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes 140.0-148.9) undergoing surgery, chemotherapy (CT), radiotherapy (RT), concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT), sequential CT and RT, or surgery with adjuvant treatment. The exclusion criteria were a past cancer history, distant metastasis, AJCC stage I or II, missing sex data, an age < 20 years, nasopharyngeal cancer, in situ carcinoma, sarcoma, and HNSCC recurrence. The index date was the date of first HNSCC diagnosis, and comorbidities were scored using the CCI. The enrolled patients were categorized into Group 1 (curative-intent aggressive treatments) and Group 2 (best supportive care or palliative treatments).We enrolled 21,174 stage III or IV HNSCC patients without distant metastasis (median follow-up, 3.25 years). Groups 1 and 2 comprised 18,584 and 2232 patients, respectively. After adjustment for age, sex, and clinical stage, adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) of overall death in Group 1 were 0.33 (0.31-0.35), 0.34 (0.31-0.36), and 0.37 (0.28-0.49), and those of all-cause death among patients undergoing curative surgical aggressive treatments were 1.13 (0.82-1.55), 0.67 (0.62-0.73), and 0.49 (0.46-0.53) for CCI scores of ?10, 5 to 9, and <5, respectively.Aggressive treatments improve survival in elderly (?65 years) and critically ill HNSCC patients. Curative nonsurgical aggressive treatments including definitive RT or CCRT might be suitable for HNSCC patients with CCI scores ?10.

SUBMITTER: Chen JH

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4998798 | biostudies-other | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Curative-Intent Aggressive Treatment Improves Survival in Elderly Patients With Locally Advanced Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma and High Comorbidity Index.

Chen Jin-Hua JH Yen Yu-Chun YC Yang Hsuan-Chia HC Liu Shing-Hwa SH Yuan Sheng-Po SP Wu Li-Li LL Lee Fei-Peng FP Lin Kuan-Chou KC Lai Ming-Tang MT Wu Chia-Che CC Chen Tsung-Ming TM Chang Chia-Lun CL Chow Jyh-Ming JM Ding Yi-Fang YF Wu Szu-Yuan SY

Medicine 20160401 14

For locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), therapeutic decisions depend on comorbidity or age. We estimated the treatment outcomes of patients with different Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) scores and ages to determine whether aggressive treatment improves survival.Data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance and cancer registry databases were analyzed, and we included >20-year-old patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage III or IV HNSCC (Internat ...[more]

PMID: 27057882

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Project description:The demographics of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) is marked by a growing number of patients aged 65 and over, which is in line with global projections for other cancer types. In developed countries, more than half of new SCCHN cases are diagnosed in older people, and in 15?years from now, the proportion is expected to rise by more than 10%. Still, a high-level evidence-based consensus to guide the clinical decision process is strikingly lacking. The available data from retrospective studies and subset analyses of prospective trials suffer from a considerable underrepresentation of senior participants. The situation is even more challenging in the recurrent and/or metastatic setting, where usually only palliative measures are employed. Nevertheless, it is becoming clear that, if treated irrespective of chronological age, fit elderly patients in a good general condition and with a low burden of comorbidities may derive a similar survival advantage as their younger counterparts. Despite that, undertreatment represents a widespread phenomenon and, together with competing non-cancer mortality, is suggested to be an important cause of the worse treatment outcomes observed in this population. Due to physiological changes in drug metabolism occurring with advancing age, the major concerns relate to chemotherapy administration. In locally advanced SCCHN, concurrent chemoradiotherapy in patients over 70?years remains a point of controversy owing to its possibly higher toxicity and questionable benefit. However, accumulating evidence suggests that it should, indeed, be considered in selected cases when biological age is taken into account. Results from a randomized trial conducted in lung cancer showed that treatment selection based on a comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) significantly reduced toxicity. However, a CGA is time-consuming and not necessary for all patients. To overcome this hurdle, geriatric screening tools have been introduced to decide who needs such a full evaluation. Among the various screening instruments, G8 and Flemish version of the Triage Risk Screening Tool were prospectively verified and found to have prognostic value. We, therefore, conclude that also in SCCHN, the application of elderly specific prospective trials and integration of clinical practice-oriented assessment tools and predictive models should be promoted.

Project description:IntroductionTechnological advancements in treatment planning and delivery have propelled the use of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). This review compares IMRT with conventional two-dimensional (2D) and/or three-dimensional (3D) radiotherapy (RT) in curative-intent management of HNSCC.MethodsOnly randomized controlled trials (RCTs) offering curative-intent RT in patients with non-metastatic HNSCC were included. Outcome data was extracted independently by two reviewers, pooled using the Cochrane methodology, and expressed as risk ratio (RR) or hazard ratio (HR) as appropriate with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Xerostomia was the primary outcome of interest whereas loco-regional control, overall survival and quality-of-life (QOL) were secondary endpoints.ResultsSeven RCTs involving 1155 patients directly comparing IMRT with 2D/3D-RT in HNSCC were included. The primary objective in five of seven index RCTs was reduction in xerostomia, with only one trial each using loco-regional control and overall survival as primary endpoints for sample size calculation. The use of IMRT was associated with a 36% relative risk reduction in ≥grade 2 acute xerostomia (RR = 0.64, 95%CI = 0.49-0.84; p = 0.001) compared to 2D/3D-RT. More importantly, IMRT significantly reduced the risk of ≥grade 2 late xerostomia (RR = 0.44, 95%CI = 0.34-0.57; p = 0.00001) compared to non-IMRT techniques at all time-points. Within the limitations of inadequate sample size and low statistical power, IMRT also resulted in 24% relative reduction in the risk of loco-regional relapse (HR = 0.76, 0.57-1.01; p = 0.06) and 30% relative reduction in risk of death (HR = 0.70, 95%CI = 0.57-0.88; p = 0.002) compared to 2D/3D-RT. However, this benefit of IMRT for loco-regional control and overall survival was limited to nasopharyngeal cancer patients alone, with no significant difference in efficacy between the two techniques in patients with cancers of the laryngo-pharynx in this analysis, highlighting the inconsistency in results of subgroup analyses stratified by primary site. Inadequate reporting of data precluded statistically pooling of results for QOL outcomes.ConclusionsThere is consistent moderate-quality evidence that IMRT significantly reduces the risk of moderate to severe acute and late xerostomia compared to 2D/3D-RT in curative-intent radiotherapeutic management of HNSCC. However, the quality of evidence regarding the superiority of IMRT over conventional techniques for disease-related endpoints is rather low due to relative lack of power and inconsistency of results precluding robust conclusions.

Dataset Information

Curative-Intent Aggressive Treatment Improves Survival in Elderly Patients With Locally Advanced Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma and High Comorbidity Index.

Publications

Curative-Intent Aggressive Treatment Improves Survival in Elderly Patients With Locally Advanced Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma and High Comorbidity Index.

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