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

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 = 0.43, p < 0.0001). A nonsignificant, positive correlation was found between referral time and OS (R = 0.17, p = 0.10).

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.

Keywords

Systemic treatment start head and neck cancer referral

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