Table 1.
Patient and treatment characteristics for the three cohorts considered in the study: (a) Nasopharyngeal Cancer (NCP) patients for model development; (b) NPC patients for model validation and (c) mixed head and neck cancer (other than NPC) validation population.
| Patient Characteristics | (a) NPC Development (n = 132 pts) (%) |
(b) NPC Validation (n = 38 pts) (%) |
(c) HNC Validation (n = 93 pts) (%) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | Female | 40 (30.3) | 8 (21.1) | 25 (26.9) |
| Male | 92 (69.7) | 30 (78.9) | 68 (73.1) | |
| Age median {range} (years) | 49 {18–81} | 52 {24–72} | 62 {23–83} | |
| BMI median {range} kg/m2 | 25.9 {16.6–42.9} | 25.8 {18.2–32.9} | 24.8 {14.7–36.4} | |
| Smoke (Yes) | 24 (18.2) | 20 (52.6) | 63 (67.7) | |
| Comorbidities (Yes) | Hypertension | 19 (14.4) | 10 (26.3) | 37 (39.8) |
| Diabetes mellitus | 4 (3.0) | 1 (2.6) | 4 (4.3) | |
| Cardiological | 6 (4.5) | 3 (7.9) | 20 (21.5) | |
| Haematological | 7 (5.3) | - | 2 (2.1) | |
| Oncological | 5 (3.8) | 3 (7.9) | 15 (16.1) | |
| Histology (WHO tumour classification) | Undifferentiated | 119 (90.2) | 34 (89.5) | - |
| SCC | 13 (9.8) | 4 (10.5) | 84 (90.3) | |
| Other | - | 9 (9.7) | ||
| Staging procedures | MRI | 129 (97.7) | 38 (100) | 86 (92.5) |
| (18F)FDG-PET | 123 (93.2) | 38 (100) | 88 (94.6) | |
| Stage (Edge 2010) | II | 20 (15.1) | 6 (15.8) | 7 (7.5) |
| III | 38 (28.8) | 12 (31.6) | 28 (30.1) | |
| IVA | 29 (22.0) | 9 (23.7) | 45 (48.4) | |
| IVB | 45 (34.1) | 11 (28.9) | 13 (14) | |
| Treatment | RT-CHT | 30 (22.7) | 19 (50.0) | 56 (60.2) |
| iCHT + RT-CHT | 102 (77.3) | 16 (42.1) | 11 (11.8) | |
| RT alone | 3 (7.9) | 26 (28.0) | ||
| RT technique | IMRT | 70 (53.0) | - | - |
| VMAT | 62 (47.0) | 38 (100) | 93 (100) | |
| Fractionation | 2 Gy/fraction | 101 (76.5) | 1 (2.6) | 32 (34.4) |
| ≥2.12 Gy/fraction | 31 (23.5) | 37 (97.4) | 61 (65.6) | |
Abbreviations: NPC = nasopharyngeal cancer; HNC = head and neck cancer; pts = patients; BMI = body mass index; SCC = squamous cell carcinoma; RT-CHT = platinum-based chemotherapy concomitant to RT; iCHT = induction chemotherapy: TPF—docetaxel 75 mg/m2 and cisplatin 75 mg/m2 on day 1, and 5-FU 750 mg/m2/day (96-h continuous infusion)-scheme; IMRT = intensity modulated radiotherapy; and VMAT = volumetric modulated arc radiotherapy.