Clinical factors predicting for prolonged enteral supplementation in patients with oropharyngeal cancer treated with chemoradiation.

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study is to determine the pre-treatment clinical factors associated with prolonged enteral feeding in patients with oropharyngeal cancer treated with chemoradiation.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

One hundred and nine patients with stage III-IVB oropharyngeal carcinoma treated with definitive chemoradiation were analyzed. Feeding tube usage was defined as the duration of active usage for nutritional purposes.

RESULTS

Median follow-up was 4.4 years and median feeding tube usage was 2.5 months. On multivariate analysis, increasing duration of feeding tube usage was associated with narcotic use before treatment (p = 0.04), living alone at the time of treatment (p = 0.04), and larger pre-treatment decrease in body-mass index (p = 0.01). Prolonged feeding tube usage was associated with decreased overall survival (p = 0.06) and disease-free survival (p = 0.02) in univariate analysis.

CONCLUSIONS

By identifying patients at risk for prolonged feeding tube usage, aggressive measures can be attempted to prevent feeding tube dependence.