The impact of marital status on the prognosis of patients treated for head and neck cancer focusing on squamous cell carcinoma (Retrospective study and systematic review)

• Grant number: 22/08374-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2023
• End date: April 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Dentistry
• Principal Investigator: Cleverton Roberto de Andrade
• Grantee: Amanda Miranda Martins
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Odontologia (FOAr). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/04308-1 - Clinical pathological impact with delayed diagnostics in head and neck cancer patients: South America and Europe, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

The decisions involving individual health care and public health policies should be informed by the best scientific evidence. Systematic reviews aim to identify, evaluate, and summarize the most relevant scientific research that adheres to a strict scientific design based on explicit, pre-specified and reproducible methods. Cancer remains one of the biggest causes of death in the world and, in the head and neck region, presents poor prognoses and low survival rate, a fact that leads to the need for studies that aim to improve these rates. Nowadays, marital status has recently been studied in tumors in other regions such as liver, breast and prostate, and has proved to be relevant. On the other hand, histopathological, population and laboratorial data-based studies allow statistical methods to compare data that produce strong results. The aim of our research is identifying the impact of marital status on the prognosis of patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). To this aim, a retrospective study will be designed by using clinical data obtained at the Hospital do Câncer de Barretos, adopting as inclusion criteria: patients diagnosed with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; minimum follow-up of 3 to 5 years and complete data on treatment modalities applied and marital status. A systematic review will also be structured using Medline, Mendeley, Ibecs, and Google Scholar databases and using the terms ''head and neck cancer,'' ''squamous cell carcinoma,'' ''gender,'' ''marital status,'' and ''survival'' alone or in combination. The review will be structured in the format of the acronym PECO. Methodological quality will be assessed using the GRADE system. A meta-analysis will be performed with homogeneous data.