PATIENT RELATED PROGNOSTIC FACTORS IN HEAD NECK CANCERS: COMORBIDITIES AND AGE - FOCUS ON TUBERCULOSIS AND ON GERIATRIC ONCOLOGY

Head and neck cancers are often diagnosed in the late stages, the evolution being often unfavorable even if the multimodal treatment is administered correctly.In principle, it can be considered that there are three categories of factors involved in prognosis: pa tient, tumor and treatment related-factors.The aim of the study was to highlight the involvement of patient-related factors in the prognosis of locally advanced, recurrent and metastatic head and neck cancers.Materials and methods: After the initial selection, including the identification of cases treated in the Oncology Clinic and the Oncology outpatient clinic, the study group included 190 patients.Among them, after applying the general inclusion and exclusion criteria, 149 cases of head and neck cancers were selected.Patients admitted to the oncological record in the period 2002-2021 with all anatomical locations of head and neck cancers, stage III and IV: nasopharynx, oropharynx, larynx, hypopharynx, oral cavity, glands saliv ation, nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses, cervical lymph node metastases of unspecified starting point -Cancers with Unknown Primary (CUP).Results: The presence of comorbidities in the case of patients with head and neck cancer, but especially pulmonary tuberculosis, a ctive, reactivated or sequelae, is associated with an unfavorable prognosis.Studies are needed to analyze in more detail the implication of the association between pulmonary tuberculosis and each subtype of head and neck cancer.Conclusions: There is an increased incidence of neurological pathologies, especially stroke compared to the results published in the liter ature.In our study, age >65 years was not identified as a significant prognostic factor, but a tendency to reduce survival to more than 2 years in the case of geriatric patients should be mentioned.