Abstract

PURPOSE: Previous studies indicate the benefit of therapy depends on patients' risk for cancer recurrence relative to non-cancer mortality (omega ratio). We sought to test the hypothesis that head and neck cancer (HNC) patients with a higher omega ratio selectively benefit from intensive therapy.EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We analyzed 2688 patients with stage III-IVB HNC undergoing primary radiation therapy (RT) with or without systemic therapy on three phase III trials (RTOG 9003, RTOG 0129, and RTOG 0522). We used generalized competing event regression to stratify patients according to omega ratio, and compared the effectiveness of intensive therapy as a function of predicted omega ratio (i.e., omega score). Intensive therapy was defined as treatment on an experimental arm with altered fractionation (AFX) and/or multiagent concurrent systemic therapy. A nomogram was developed to predict patients' omega score based on tumor, demographic, and health factors. Analysis was by intention-to-treat.RESULTS: Decreasing age, improved performance status, higher body mass index, node positive status, P16 negative status, and oral cavity primary predicted a higher omega ratio. Patients with omega score = 0.80 were more likely to benefit from intensive treatment (5-year OS, 70.0% vs. 56.6%; HR 0.73, 95% CI 0.57-0.94; P=0.016) than those with a omega score < 0.80 (5-year OS, 46.7% vs. 45.3%; HR 1.02, 95% CI 0.92-1.14; P=0.69;P=0.019 for interaction). In contrast, the effectiveness of intensive therapy did not depend on risk of progression.CONCLUSION: HNC patients with a higher omega score selectively benefit from intensive treatment. A nomogram was developed to help select patients for intensive therapy.

View details for DOI 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-1832

View details for PubMedID 31420360