Oropharyngeal cancer: the role of chemotherapy

Dyadic Yoga for Head and Neck Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemoradiation and their Family Caregivers

OBJECTIVES

Concurrent chemoradiation to treat head and neck cancer (HNC) may result in debilitating toxicities. Targeted exercise such as yoga therapy may buffer against treatment-related sequelae; thus, this pilot RCT examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a yoga intervention. Because family caregivers report low caregiving efficacy and elevated levels of distress, we included them in this trial as active study participants.

METHODS

HNC patients and their caregivers were randomized to a 15-session dyadic yoga program or a waitlist control (WLC) group. Prior to randomization, patients completed standard symptom (MDASI-HN) and patients and caregivers completed quality of life (SF-36) assessments. The 15-session program was delivered parallel to patients' treatment schedules. Participants were re-assessed at patients' last day of chemoradiation and again 30 days later. Patients' emergency department visits, unplanned hospital admissions and gastric feeding tube placements were recorded over the treatment course and up to 30 days later.

RESULTS

With a consent rate of 76%, 37 dyads were randomized. Participants in the yoga group completed a mean of 12.5 sessions and rated the program as "beneficial." Patients in the yoga group had clinically significantly less symptom interference and HNC symptom severity and better QOL than those in the WLC group. They were also less likely to have a hospital admission (OR = 3.00), emergency department visit (OR = 2.14), and/or a feeding tube placement (OR = 1.78).

CONCLUSION

Yoga therapy appears to be a feasible, acceptable, and possibly efficacious behavioral supportive care strategy for HNC patients undergoing chemoradiation. A larger efficacy trial is warranted.

The Effects of Yoga in Helping Cancer Patients and Caregivers Manage the Stress of a Natural Disaster: A Brief Report on Hurricane Harvey

Background: This small qualitative study reports on the experiences of patients and family caregivers who participated in a dyadic yoga pilot trial while undergoing cancer treatment in the midst of Hurricane Harvey. Our primary purpose was to determine if participants implemented components of the program to cope with the stressors associated with Hurricane Harvey and if they perceived benefits from the yoga practices. Methods: We administered brief semistructured interviews to the dyads participating in a dyadic yoga pilot trial. Participants (n = 5 dyads) were asked to discuss their experience with Hurricane Harvey, including factors that helped them cope with the event while receiving treatment. Result: Patients had a mean age of 55.6 years, were mostly non-Hispanic White, male, and had advance stage head and neck cancer. Caregivers had a mean age of 58 years and were mainly non-Hispanic White and female. Analyses of the interviews revealed 2 overarching themes: (1) the storm's negative impact and (2) the use of yoga to cope with the hurricane-related stressors. Conclusions: Patient-caregiver dyads experienced psychological distress during the storm and/or its aftermath. Dyads used yoga techniques to cope with these psychological stressors. Yoga served as a means of social support as dyads either participated in these activities together or with other family members.

Weight Loss and Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Tube Placement during Chemoradiotherapy for Locally Advanced Cancer of the Oropharynx Do Not Negatively Impact Outcomes

Objectives

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy is standard of care in locally advanced oropharyngeal cancer (LA-OPC). This treatment regimen results in significant acute toxicities. This study investigates the effect of treatment-related toxicity on patient outcomes.

Methods

Patient information was retrospectively collected for patients treated for LA-OPC between 2007 and 2014. Factors analyzed included age, gender, pretreatment ECOG performance status, smoking history, patient BMI prior to and following treatment, tumor histology, disease stage, disease recurrence, incidence, and timing of feeding tube placement, radiation dose received, chemotherapy regimen used and if it was completed, and patient survival. All statistical analysis was provided through the University of Nebraska Medical Center Department of Biostatistics.

Results

74 patients were identified with a median follow-up of 3.4 years and a median age of 58.5. Most patients were male (87.8%) and had squamous cell histology (98.7%). Most patients underwent chemoradiotherapy alone (98.6%) and received concurrent cisplatin (78.4%) with approximately half (53.4%) receiving all planned chemotherapy. Upon multivariate analysis, both disease-free (DFS) and overall survival (OS) rates were improved by lower pretreatment BMI, increased weight lost during treatment, and lack of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube placement prior to treatment initiation. Neither DFS nor OS was impacted by placement of a PEG tube during active treatment.

Conclusion

These data suggest that weight loss and PEG tube placement during chemoradiotherapy for LA-OPC, presumably due to treatment-associated mucositis and xerostomia, are not associated with worse outcomes.

Primary surgery versus chemoradiotherapy for advanced oropharyngeal cancers: a longitudinal population study

Background

Treatment for advanced stage oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) includes combined chemoradiation therapy or surgery followed by radiation therapy alone or in combination with chemotherapy. The goal of this study was to utilize available evidence to examine survival outcome differences in patients with advanced stage OPSCC treated with these different modalities.

Methods

Patients with advanced stage OPSCC were identified. Primary outcome measurements were disease specific and overall survival rates with differences examined via Kaplan-Meier and logistic regression analysis.

Results

344 patients were enrolled. 94 patients underwent triple modality therapy inclusive of surgery followed by adjuvant combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy (S-CRT). 131 had surgery and radiation therapy (S-RT), while 56 had chemoradiation (CRT) therapy as their primary treatment. A total of 63 patients had single modality radiation therapy and were excluded from analysis due to the large number of palliative patients.

Kaplan-Meier overall survival analysis showed that therapy with S-CRT had the highest disease specific survival at five years (71.1%). This is contrasted against S-RT and CRT, with five year survival rates at 53.9%, and 48.6%, respectively.

Cox regression showed that the comparison of S-CRT vs. S-RT, and CRT is associated with statistically significant increased hazard ratios of 1.974, and 2.785, indicating that both S-RT and CRT are associated with a reduced likelihood of survival at 5 years when compared to S-CRT.

Conclusions

In this population based cohort study S-CRT is associated with a 17–22% 5 year disease specific survival benefit compared to CRT or S-RT.

Radiation therapy is well tolerated and produces excellent control rates in elderly patients with locally advanced head and neck cancers

PURPOSE

Management of locally advanced head and neck cancer (LAHNC) in the elderly is challenging due to multiple co-morbidities, poor organ function and performance status. The aim of this study was to evaluate efficacy of radiation therapy (RT) in elderly patients, defined as 65 years and older, with high-risk LAHNC.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

An IRB approved retrospective chart review of elderly patients was performed, of whom 73 patients were selected for analysis. The stages included were II/III-IV. Sites included were oropharynx, oral cavity, larynx, salivary gland, nasopharynx, nasal cavity, paranasal sinus, hypopharynx and unknown primary.

RESULTS

Median age was 74 years. Thirty nine (53%) patients received concurrent chemotherapy. Median time to completion of RT was 53 days. Median external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) dose was 66 Gy. With a median follow-up of 24 months, overall local control (LC) was 80% and distant metastasis (DM) was 12%. Sixty patients (82%) were alive at the time of study. Two-year overall survival (OS) was 96% (95% CI=87%, 99%). Chemotherapy did not improve LC [80% (chemo) vs 79% (no chemo), p=0.88] or DM [11% (chemo) vs 14% (no chemo), p=0.73]. Interestingly, patients receiving RT using intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) had a significantly higher rate of LC vs three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy (3DCRT) (94% vs 68%, respectively, p=0.008). Grade 2/3 toxicity was seen in 70/73 (96%) patients while grade 4 toxicity was seen in three patients (4%).

CONCLUSION

Elderly patients with LAHNC have high rates of LC and OS. Prospective studies can reveal more insight into this increasingly important clinical problem in elderly patients.

Chemoradiotherapy for locoregionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the base of tongue

BACKGROUND

Our aim was to report the outcomes of base of tongue cancers treated with chemoradiotherapy.

METHODS

Between 1990 and 2004, 127 patients with stage III or IV base of tongue cancer were treated with chemoradiotherapy on protocol. Indications included nodal involvement, T3/T4 tumors, positive margins, those patients refusing surgery, or were medically inoperable. The most common regimen was paclitaxel (100 mg/m2 on day 1), infusional 5-fluorouracil (600 mg/m2/day × 5 days), hydroxyurea (500 mg prescribed orally [PO] 2 × daily [BID]), and 1.5 Gy twice daily irradiation followed by a 9-day break without treatment.

RESULTS

Median follow-up was 51 months. The median dose to gross tumor was 72.5 Gy (range, 40-75.5 Gy). Five-year locoregional progression-free survival, overall survival, and disease-free survival was 87.0%, 58.2%, and 46.0%, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Concurrent chemoradiotherapy results in promising locoregional control for base of tongue cancer. As distant relapse was common, further investigation of systemic therapy with novel agents may be warranted.

Chemoradiation for advanced head and neck cancer: potential for improving results to match those of current treatment modalities for early-stage tumors--long-term results of hyperfractionated chemoradiation with carbogen breathing and anemia correction with erythropoietin

PURPOSE

To attempt to improve results of chemoradiation for head and neck cancer.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

From March 1996 to April 2007, 98 patients with head and neck cancer (15 Stage III and 83 Stage IV) were treated with a twice-daily hyperfractionated schedule. Eleven patients presented with N0, 11 with N1, 13 with N2A, 17 with N2B, 24 with N2C, and 22 with N3. Each fraction of treatment consisted of 5 mg/m(2) of carboplatin plus 115 cGy with carbogen breathing. Treatment was given 5 days per week up to total doses of 350 mg/m(2) of carboplatin plus 8050 cGy in 7 weeks. Anemia was corrected with erythropoietin.

RESULTS

Ninety-six patients tolerated the treatment as scheduled. All patients tolerated the planned radiation dose. Local toxicity remained at the level expected with irradiation alone. Chemotherapy toxicity was moderate. Ninety-seven complete responses were achieved. After 11 years of follow-up (median, 81 months), actuarial locoregional control, cause-specific survival, overall survival, and nodal control rates at 5 and 10 years were, respectively, 83% and 83%, 68% and 68%, 57% and 55%, and 100% and 100%. Median follow-up of disease-free survivors was 80 months. No significant differences in survival were observed between the different subsites or between the pretreatment node status groups (N0 vs. N+, N0 vs. N1, N0 vs. N2A, N0 vs. N2B, N0 vs. N2C, and N0 vs. N3).

CONCLUSIONS

Improving results of chemoradiation for advanced head and neck cancer up to the level obtained with current treatments for early-stage tumors is a potentially reachable goal.

Thymidine phosphorylase mRNA level predicts survival of patients with advanced oropharyngeal cancer

CONCLUSION

The present study suggested that a high level of thymidine phosphorylase (TP) gene expression is significantly associated with favorable prognosis of patients treated with 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy. Further studies consisting of large series should be performed to confirm our present results.

BACKGROUND

Expression levels of the thymidylate synthase (TS) and 5-FU metabolic enzymes including dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD), TP, and orotate phosphoribosyl transferase (OPRT), are reported to be associated with sensitivity to 5-FU-based chemotherapy in several cancers.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Intratumoral mRNA expression levels of TS, DPD, TP, and OPRT in pretreatment biopsy specimens were quantified in 27 patients with advanced oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas. Association of these expression levels with response to platinum and 5-FU-based chemotherapy and survival were analyzed statistically.

RESULTS

By Spearman's correlation analysis, significant correlation was observed between TS and TP (gamma=0.51, p=0.018). While no correlation was observed between the tumor regression and expression of any of the genes investigated, significant association was observed between prognosis and mRNA expression levels of TS and TP. Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that TP mRNA expression level is a significant factor predicting prognosis (hazard ratio (HR) = - 0.204, p=0.043).

The National Cancer Data Base report on squamous cell carcinoma of the base of tongue

BACKGROUND

This study provides the largest contemporary overview of presentation, care, and outcome for base of tongue squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

METHODS

We extracted 16,188 cases from the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB). Chi-square analyses were performed on selected cross-tabulations. Observed and disease-specific survival were used to analyze outcome.

RESULTS

Three-quarters had advanced-stage (III-IV) disease. Radiation therapy alone (24.5%) and combined with surgery (26.9%) were the most common treatments. Five-year observed and disease-specific survival rates were 27.8% and 40.3%, respectively. Poorer survival was significantly associated with older age, low income, and advanced-stage disease. For early-stage disease, surgery with or without irradiation had higher survival than irradiation alone. For advanced-stage disease, surgery with irradiation had the highest survival.

CONCLUSIONS

Survival rates were low for base of tongue SCC, with most deaths occurring within the first 2 years. Income, stage, and age were significant prognostic factors. In this nonrandomized series, surgery with radiation therapy offered patients with advanced-stage disease the best survival.