Prognostic factors in radiotherapy of oropharyngeal cancer

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of clinical and treatment parameters (such as: the normalized total dose, the overall treatment time, the presence of an interruption during the course of irradiation) on the results of radiotherapy in oropharyngeal cancer. 71 consecutive patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx were analyzed. All patients received radical Co-60 radiotherapy. The overall actuarial local relapse free rate at 2.5 years was 55%. The performance status in Zubrod scale was the only pretreatment prognostic factor which appeared to be significant in the analysis. The analysis shows that the effects of treatment related parameters such as the overall treatment time, normalized total dose, the interruptions during the treatment on time to local recurrence are not statistically significant. The influence of clinical factors on the outcome of dose-time analysis is discussed. (author)