Diagnostic-To-Treatment Interval and Disease Progression among Head and Neck Cancer Patients Undergoing Surgery
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32412/pjohns.v32i1.175Keywords:
head and neck cancer, treatment delay, diagnostic interval, tumor progressionAbstract
Objectives: To determine whether the interval from pathological diagnosis to treatment is significantly delayed, and the presence or absence of disease progression occurring in those with, and without treatment delay, among head and neck cancer patients in our institution.
Methods:
Study Design: Retrospective Chart Review
Setting: Tertiary Government Hospital
Subjects: Medical records of 70 patients with newly diagnosed head and neck cancer who underwent primary surgery from January 2011 to December 2015 were retrieved and available data were extracted.
Results: A total of 28 patients were included in this study. Majority of the cancers were in the larynx (42.9%) and oral cavity (42.9%). The mean diagnostic-to-treatment interval (DTI) was 54 days, but 5(17.8%) out of the 28 had a DTI of more than 60 days. Four (80%) with a DTI more than 60 days had an upstage during surgery while 4 (17.4%) patients with DTI less than or equal to 60 days also had an upstage. 2 (60%) patients with treatment delay had tumor progression compared to 5 (21.7%) of those without treatment delay. Only 1 (20%) out of the 5 patients with treatment delay had increased nodal metastasis in contrast to 8 (34.8%) of those who did not have treatment delay.
Conclusion: A number of patients undergoing surgery in our institution experienced delay to initiate treatment of more than 60 days and majority of these patients were noted to have disease progression. However, even patients with treatment prior to 60 days had increases in tumor stage, which may suggest that the interval aimed for should be shorter than 60 days.
Keywords: head and neck cancer, treatment delay, diagnostic interval, tumor progression
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright transfer (all authors; where the work is not protected by a copyright act e.g. US federal employment at the time of manuscript preparation, and there is no copyright of which ownership can be transferred, a separate statement is hereby submitted by each concerned author). In consideration of the action taken by the Philippine Journal of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery in reviewing and editing this manuscript, I hereby assign, transfer and convey all rights, title and interest in the work, including copyright ownership, to the Philippine Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Inc. (PSOHNS) in the event that this work is published by the PSOHNS. In making this assignment of ownership, I understand that all accepted manuscripts become the permanent property of the PSOHNS and may not be published elsewhere without written permission from the PSOHNS unless shared under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.
