Risk-scoring system for predicting mucositis in patients of head and neck cancer receiving concurrent...

One of the most distressing complications of head and neck cancer patients on chemoradiotherapy is mucositis. There is no proper tool to predict its occurrence in these patients.

This study was conducted to develop a risk-scoring system to predict probable incidence and severity of mucositis in head and neck cancer patients on chemoradiotherapy.

This is a retrospective analysis conducted at a tertiary care cancer center with approximately 2,000 new cases of head and neck cancer patients annually. We Hypothesized were age, comorbid conditions, leukocyte count, nutritional status, oral hygiene, tobacco use, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR); Eastern cooperative oncology group (ECOG) performance status (PS) and TNM (tumor, node, metastasis) stage as possible risk factors. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn to predict the cutoff values for risk factors, and a final scoring system was developed with sensitivity and specificity data.

A total of 218 patients on chemoradiation receiving cisplatin 40 mg/m2 /week along with local radiation of 60-70 Gy depending on primary site were analyzed. Based on ROC analysis, the following cutoff values were selected: age > 40 years, ECOG PS > 2, WBC < 3000/μL, elevated ESR, albumin < 3 gm/dL and > stage III disease. The remaining factors were indicated as present or absent. A score of 1 was assigned for the above risk factors. For patients, the final score of 3 or less there is 17% probability of developing grade 3 or 4 mucositis, while patients having score of 6 or more have 76% probability.

The current tool is fairly accurate in predicting development of mucositis in head and neck cancer patients on chemoradiotherapy. This will further help clinicians to adopt preventive strategies as well as better counseling.