Pre-Treatment Nutritional Status and Radiotherapy Outcome in Patients with Locally Advanced Head and Neck Cancers

Poor oral intake and associated nutritional depletion can affect treatment outcome in locally advanced head and neck cancers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pre radiotherapy nutritional status as a predictor for response to radiotherapy treatment.

Fifty patients of locally advanced head and neck cancers undergoing radical chemoradiotherapy were evaluated in this prospective analysis. Patients were treated with definitive radiotherapy to a total dose of 60-70 Gy along with concurrent chemotherapy with injection Cisplatin 100mg/m2 delivered three weekly. The patients were evaluated for pre-treatment nutritional status using the Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) questionnaire. The PG-SGA evaluation was completed just before starting radiotherapy treatment and scores correlated to treatment outcome.

Forty-seven male and three female patients were evaluated in this analysis. The median PG-SGA score was 8 with a range from 2-14.Grade 3-4 mucositis was seen in seven patients (21.8%) with PGSGA <9 compared to 55.5% in those with PG-SGA score = 9 (p=0.01). At the time of evaluation a complete response was seen in 16 patients (32%) with a PG-SGA score <9 compared to 4 patients (8%) with a PGSGA =9 (p=0.05). The median survival was 16±2.8months (Median ±S. Error) and 17±2.9 months in those with PG-SGA <9 and =9 respectively (p=0.49, log rank).

PG-SGA nutritional score <9 is associated with a better local control and acute toxicity profile in radically treated head and neck cancer patients.