ISSN:
1434-4726
Keywords:
Key words Head and neck cancer
;
Radiotherapy
;
Chemotherapy
;
Disease survival
;
Paliative treatment
Source:
Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
Topics:
Medicine
Notes:
Abstract The choice of palliative treatment and the prognostic factors in unresectable head and neck cancer cases continue to be controversial. In the present study we compared the survival rates of untreated stage IV head and neck cancer patients with cases managed prospectively at A.C. Camargo Hospital for Cancer with neoadjuvant chemotherapy, concomitant chemotherapy or radiotherapy alone. Previous results had shown that while the type of treatment did not influence survival rates (P = 0.706), tumor response to treatment (whether complete, partial or none) significantly influenced survival (P = 0.00002). In the present study we compared the survival rates in the groups with untreated patients (who remained untreated until death) with the same demographic and clinical characteristics of patients receiving treatment. We found that there was a significant difference between the survival rates of the untreated group and those of the treated groups that was independent of the type of treatment performed (P 〈 0.00001) or the tumor response to treatment (P 〈 0.0001).
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s004050050216
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