Table 1.
Patient, tumor, and treatment characteristics
| All patients | No trismus (≥3 fingers) | Mild trismus (≥2 fingers) | Moderate/Severe trismus (<2 fingers) | p-value | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n=587 | n=419 (71%) | n=154 (26%) | n=14 (3%) | ||||||
| Covariate | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | % | |
| Sex | |||||||||
| Male | 492 | 83.8 | 348 | 71 | 132 | 27 | 12 | 2 | 0.73 |
| Female | 95 | 16.2 | 71 | 75 | 22 | 23 | 2 | 2 | |
| Mean age (years) ± SD | 57.69 | 8.59 | 57.52 | 8.62 | 58.07 | 8.53 | 58.57 | 8.58 | 0.67 |
| Initial disease site | |||||||||
| Base of tongue | 288 | 49.1 | 220 | 76 | 64 | 22 | 4 | 2 | 0.59 |
| Tonsil | 267 | 45.5 | 178 | 67 | 81 | 30 | 8 | 3 | |
| NOS | 17 | 2.9 | 10 | 60 | 6 | 35 | 1 | 5 | |
| Soft palate | 7 | 1.2 | 7 | 100 | - | - | - | ||
| GPS | 6 | 1.0 | 3 | 50 | 2 | 33 | 1 | 17 | |
| Pharyngeal wall | 2 | 0.3 | 1 | 50 | 1 | 50 | - | - | |
| HPV/p16 status | |||||||||
| Positive | 338 | 57.6 | 248 | 73 | 84 | 25 | 6 | 2 | 0.33 |
| Negative | 42 | 7.1 | 29 | 69 | 13 | 31 | - | - | |
| Unknown | 207 | 35.3 | 142 | 68 | 57 | 28 | 8 | 4 | |
| T status | |||||||||
| T1 | 203 | 34.6 | 166 | 82 | 34 | 17 | 3 | 1 | <0.0001* |
| T2 | 229 | 39.0 | 161 | 70 | 66 | 29 | 2 | 1 | |
| T3 | 91 | 15.5 | 61 | 67 | 27 | 30 | 3 | 3 | |
| T4 | 61 | 10.4 | 29 | 47 | 26 | 42 | 6 | 1 | |
| Tx | 3 | 0.5 | 2 | 67 | 1 | 33 | |||
| N status | |||||||||
| N0 | 46 | 7.8 | 31 | 67 | 14 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 0.35 |
| N1 | 81 | 13.8 | 61 | 75 | 17 | 2 | 3 | 3 | |
| N2a | 62 | 10.6 | 47 | 76 | 14 | 22 | 1 | 2 | |
| N2b | 283 | 48.2 | 204 | 72 | 76 | 27 | 3 | 1 | |
| N2c | 103 | 17.5 | 67 | 65 | 30 | 29 | 6 | 6 | |
| N3 | 12 | 2.0 | 9 | 75 | 3 | 25 | - | - | |
| Mean radiation dose ± SD, Gy | 68.12 | 2.67 | 67.85 | 2.46 | 68.69 | 3.15 | 69.84 | 1.23 | <0.0001* |
| Mean no. fractions ± SD | 32.17 | 2.59 | 31.9 | 2.34 | 32.77 | 3.10 | 33.43 | 2.13 | <0.0001* |
| Chemotherapy | |||||||||
| Induction | 98 | 16.7 | 76 | 78 | 22 | 22 | - | - | 0.0001* |
| Concurrent | 220 | 37.5 | 155 | 71 | 63 | 29 | 2 | <1 | |
| Induction + Concurrent | 129 | 21.8 | 75 | 58 | 45 | 36 | 8 | 6 | |
| None | 141 | 24.0 | 113 | 80 | 24 | 17 | 4 | 3 | |
| Surgery | |||||||||
| Yes | 12 | 2.0 | 11 | 92 | 1 | 8 | - | - | 0.29 |
| No | 575 | 98.0 | 408 | 71 | 153 | 27 | 14 | 2 | |
| Mean survival time at survey (years) ± SD | 5.94 | 2.86 | 5.75 | 2.87 | 6.41 | 2.79 | 6.14 | 2.71 | 0.0321* |
Abbreviations: SD, Standard deviation; NOS, Not otherwise specified; GPS, Glossopharyngeal sulcus; Gy, Gray Group mean and categorical variables were compared with Kruskal-Wallis test and Pearson’s chi-square test, respectively.