Five-year survival rate in 2002 of head and neck cancer patients treated at Lopburi Cancer Center

Abstract

Background : Head and neck cancer is a leading type of cancer in Thailand. According to clinical data base from the Lopburi Cancer Center, head and neck cancer ranks first among all cancer types in men and ranks the third among all cancer types in women. Unfortunately, there has been a lack of information of five-year survival rate of head and neck cancer patients treated at Lopburi Cancer Center.

Objective : To determine 5-year survival rate and prognostic factors for survival of patients with head and neck cancer treated with combinedmodality therapy at Lopburi Cancer Center.

Setting : Lopburi Cancer Center.

Material and Method : The author retrospectively analyzed the patient-tumor characteristic and treatment outcomes of 338 patients with head and neck cancer who were treated at Lopburi Cancer Center 2002. The author used Kaplan-Meier method to describe the overall survival. The author analyzed associations of patients and tumor characteristics with overall survival rate using the log-rank test.

Results : There were 272 deaths. The 5-year survival was 18.34%. The median survival was 1.063 years (95% confidence interval, 0.953-1.173years). The characteristics was statistically significant associated with decreased survival included the stage of disease and body mass index (BMI).

Conclusion : Overall, the prognosis of patients with head and neck cancer was not good. The subgroup of patients who presented with advanced stage of the disease and body mass index (BMI) <18.5kg/m2 had a poor long-term outcome.