Pretreatment hemoglobin level as a prognostic factor in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Aim Evaluate pretreatment hemoglobin values as a prognostic factor in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Background Anemia is one of the most prevalent laboratory abnormalities in oncological disease. It leads to a decrease in cellular oxygen supply, altering radiosensitivity of tumor cells and compromising therapeutic outcomes. Materials and Methods Retrospective evaluation of patients with HNSCC treated with cCRT. Primary and secondary endpoint was to evaluate the correlation of Hb levels (≥12.5g/dL or <12.5g/dL) at the beginning of cCRT with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), respectively. Results A total of 108 patients were identified. With a median follow-up of 16.10 months median OS was 59.70 months for Hb ≥12.5g/dL vs. 14.13 months for Hb <12.5g/dL (p=0.004). PFS was 12.29 months for Hb ≥12.5g/dL and 1.68 months for Hb <12.5g/dL (p=0.016). Conclusions In this analysis, Hb ≥12.5g/dL correlated with significantly better OS and PFS. Further studies are needed to validate these findings.