Prospective evaluation and identification of prognostic factors in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients

• Grant number: 17/20811-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2018
• End date: May 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Gilberto de Castro Junior
• Grantee: Daniele Cristina de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Instituto do Câncer do Estado de São Paulo Octavio Frias de Oliveira (ICESP). Coordenadoria de Serviços de Saúde (CSS). Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

About 650,000 new cases of head and neck cancer (HNC) are diagnosed every year, making HNC the sixth most common type of cancer worldwide. HNC treatment depends on the staging of the tumor: cancers staged as I or II are treated with primary surgery or with definitive radiotherapy and the cancers staged as III or IV require a combined approach of several modalities of treatment, such as surgery, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy.Considering this treatment-related toxicity, which may impair the patient daily life activities and also taking into account that the median overall survival for locally advanced HNC is around 10-12 months, to better identify those patients who will benefit more from these treatments is a major concern. Some patients will not derive any benefit from these treatments in terms of overall survival.Here we aim to propose an uniinstitutional and observational cohort study to collect prospectively some clinical and laboratorial HNC patients´characteristics at their admission and to investigate the relation between these characteristics and their survival outcomes. All studied patients will be evaluated in three interim analyzes (after 3, 6 and 9-month follow-up) and a final analysis after 12 months. A prognostic score will be elaborated, in order to help us as a tool to better select the best treatment in an individual basis.