TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hecht, Markus
A1  - Hahn, Dennis
A1  - Wolber, Philipp
A1  - Hautmann, Matthias Günther
A1  - Reichert, Dietmar
A1  - Weniger, Steffi
A1  - Belka, Claus
A1  - Bergmann, Tobias
A1  - Göhler, Thomas
A1  - Welslau, Manfred
A1  - Große-Thie, Christina
A1  - Guntinas-Lichius, Orlando
A1  - Müller-von der Grün, Jens
A1  - Balermpas, Panagiotis
A1  - Orlowski, Katrin
A1  - Messinger, Diethelm
A1  - Stenzel, Karsten G.
A1  - Fietkau, Rainer
T1  - Treatment response lowers tumor symptom burden in recurrent and/or metastatic head and neck cancer
T2  - BMC Cancer
N2  - Background: Head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) frequently causes severe symptoms that may be reduced, when the tumor is successfully treated. The SOCCER trial studied the association of treatment response with patient reported tumor symptom burden in first line treatment of recurrent and/or metastatic HNSCC.
Methods: In this prospective, multi-center, non-interventional trial patients were treated either with platinum-based chemotherapy and cetuximab or radiotherapy and cetuximab. Tumor symptom burden was assessed every four weeks with a questionnaire containing ten visual analogue scales (VAS, range 0–100), which were summarized to the overall VAS score.
Results: Fourhundred seventy patients were registered in 97 German centers. A total of 315 patients with at least the baseline and one subsequent questionnaire were available for analysis. Changes in the VAS score were rated as absolute differences from baseline. Negative values indicate improvement of symptoms. The overall VAS score improved significantly at the first post-baseline assessment in responders (− 2.13 vs. non-responders + 1.15, p = 0.048), and even more for the best post-baseline assessment (− 7.82 vs. non-responders − 1.97, p = 0.0005). The VAS for pain (− 16.37 vs. non-responders − 8.89, p = 0.001) and swallowing of solid food (− 16.67 vs. non-responders − 5.06, p = 0.002) improved significantly more in responders (best post-baseline assessment). In the multivariable Cox regression analysis, worse overall VAS scores were associated with worse overall survival (hazard ratio for death 1.12 per 10 points increment on the overall VAS scale, 95% CI 1.05–1.20, p = 0.0009).
Conclusion: In unselected patients beyond randomized controlled trials, treatment response lowers tumor symptom burden in recurrent and/or metastatic HNSCC.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT00122460. Registered 22 Juli 2005,
Y1  - 2020
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/56073
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-560737
SN  - 1471-2407
VL  - 20
IS  - Article number: 933
PB  - BioMed Central
CY  - London
ER  -