Time to systemic treatment and prognosis in patients with recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell cancer.

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Time to systemic treatment and prognosis in patients with recurrent and metastatic head and neck squamous cell cancer.

Tumori. 2018 Nov 26;:300891618811276

Authors: Siano M, Espeli V, Joerger M

Abstract
BACKGROUND:: Delay of systemic treatment in recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell cancer (r/mHNSCC) has never been assessed. Whether time span to start systemic treatment affects survival and whether referral to a medical oncologist is important has not been explored.
METHODS:: We analyzed our head and neck database to assess the prognostic impact of time between diagnosis of r/mHNSCC and start of systemic treatment (time to treatment [TTT]). Secondarily, we assessed the prognostic impact of time to referral to a medical oncologist (referral time). For this purpose, we used pairwise correlation analysis and multivariate Cox regression analysis as statistical tests.
RESULTS:: A total of 110 patients with r/mHNSCC were evaluable for analysis. TTT correlated significantly with OS from r/mHNSCC diagnosis ( R = .43, p < .0001). A nonsignificant, positive correlation was found between referral time and OS ( R = .17, p = .10).
CONCLUSIONS:: Results of this retrospective analysis suggest that longer TTT is not associated with worse prognosis. Referral time seems not to have an impact on prognosis.

PMID: 30474503 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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