Molecular Marker as a Prognostic Indicator in Head and Neck Cancer Patients

Head and neck cancer forms the major burden of cancer in the developing countries. Despite advancement in the treatment approach of head and neck cancer in terms of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy overall long-term survival remains low due to uncontrollable persistent and recurrent disease. This low survival rate has demanded for the need for newer treatment approaches and prognostic markers. In a previously published study "impact of molecular predictors on the response rates in head and neck Cancer patients" by Koushik et al. assessed the impact of molecular markers like HPV, P53, and EGFR status along with other prognostic factors like tobacco use, age, sex, and socioeconomic status on response to treatment of head and neck cancer patients. Our present study is intent to provide update of the impact of those molecular markers on survival. Objective of our study is to correlate the HPV, EGFR, and P53 status with the survival rate of the head and neck cancer patients. Twenty-five histologically proven head and neck cancer patients were assessed for HPV, EGFR, and P53 status who underwent chemoradiation to a dose of 66 Gy in 33 fraction along with weekly cisplatin of 40 mg/m², and all treated patients were followed up to a minimum of 3 years and analyzed for the survival. We found that 3-year survival for complete responders after treatment is 61.5% and partial responders, 57.1%; stable disease is 33.3%, and progressive disease is 0%. A 3-year survival for HPV-positive patients is 57.4% (p = 0.973), EGFR-mutated patients is 47.62% (p = 0.593), and P53-mutated patients is 57.89% (p = 0.378).