Baseline hemoglobin <11.0 g/dL has stronger prognostic value than anemia status in nasopharynx cancers treated with chemoradiotherapy.

BACKGROUND

To retrospectively investigate the influence of pretreatment anemia and hemoglobin levels on the survival of nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (C-CRT).

METHODS

A total of 149 nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients who received C-CRT were included. All patients had received 70 Gy to the primary tumor plus the involved lymph nodes, and 59.4 Gy and 54 Gy to the intermediate- and low-risk neck regions concurrent with 1-3 cycles of cisplatin. Patients were dichotomized into non-anemic and anemic (hemoglobin <12 g/dL (women) or <13 g/dL (men)) groups according to their pre-treatment hemoglobin measures. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was utilized for accessibility of a pre-treatment hemoglobin cut-off that impacts outcomes. Potential interactions between baseline anemia status and hemoglobin measures and overall survival, locoregional progression-free survival (LRPFS), and progression-free survival were assessed.

RESULTS

Anemia was evident in 36 patients (24.1%), which was related to significantly shorter overall survival (=0.007), LRPFS (<0.021), and progression-free survival (=0.003) times; all three endpoints retained significance in multivariate analyses (<0.05, for each). A baseline hemoglobin value of 11.0 g/dL exhibited significant association with outcomes in ROC curve analysis: hemoglobin <11.0 g/dL (N=26) was linked with shorter median overall survival (<0.001), LRPFS (=0.004), and progression-free survival (<0.001) times, which also retained significance for all three endpoints in multivariate analyses and suggested a stronger prognostic worth for the hemoglobin <11.0 g/dL cut-off value than the anemia status.

CONCLUSION

Pre-C-CRT hemoglobin <11.0 g/dL has a stronger prognostic worth than the anemia status with regard to LRPFS, progression-free survival, and overall survival for nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients.