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Revista Archivo Médico de Camagüey
On-line version ISSN 1025-0255
Abstract
MEDINA GONZALEZ, Yandry; GONZALEZ FUENTES, Mariluz; RODRIGUEZ MACHADO, Jorge and ROPERO TOIRAC, Ramón. Radiotherapy for old people with advanced head and neck carcinoma. AMC [online]. 2015, vol.19, n.3, pp. 238-246. ISSN 1025-0255.
Background: old people with advanced head and neck cancer have a pessimistic attitude to the radiant treatment because of the caused acute toxicity that can compromise the therapeutic results. Objective: to characterize elderly patients with the diagnosis of head and neck locally advanced squamate carcinoma, proposed to receive radiation therapy in the analyzed period according to medical criteria. Methods: a descriptive, retrospective study was conducted in the National Institute of Oncology and Radiobiology. The study included all the patients with the diagnosis of locally advanced head and neck squamate carcinoma, stages III-IV A and IV B (anatomical sites: oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx) that were 70 years old or older and proposed to receive radiation therapy according to medical criteria in the period 2008-2012. The sample was composed of the 95 % of the patients. A model for compiling the primary data was made. The information was obtained from the clinical histories. The variables of interest were analyzed. The results obtained were presented in tables and graphics. The statistical method of Kaplan-Meier was used to estimate the overall survival function. Results: male sex predominated (76, 8 %) with a ratio of man to woman of 3:1. The most affected anatomical site was the oral cavity in the 40 % of the cases. The group of patients that do not develop acute toxicity by radiotherapy (64, 2 %) predominated. The most frequent type of acute toxicity was radiomucositis related to radiodermitis. The most used treatment was radiotherapy as a single modality and the most frequent administered total dose was between 60 and 69 Grays. The overall survival at 5 years was of 49, 3 %. Conclusions: radiotherapy prevailed as a single treatment modality with acceptable acute toxicity levels. The overall survival at 5 years was similar to those reported in international studies.
Keywords : CARCINOMA, SQUAMOUS CELL; HEAD AND NECK NEOPLASMS [radiotherapy]; ACUTE TOXICITY; EPIDEMIOLOGY, DESCRIPTIVE; AGED.