Neoadjuvant chemo response predicts sinonasal SCC outcomes

(HealthDay)—For patients with sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), pathologic response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy is associated with disease progression, according to a study published online March 2 in Head & Neck.

Hitoshi Hirakawa, M.D., Ph.D., from the Aichi Cancer Center Hospital in Nagoya, Japan, and colleagues performed surgery on 58 patients with sinonasal SCC, including 43 patients who had received neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The pathological response was classified as grade 0, 1, 2, and 3 (no, slight, moderate, and marked effect, respectively), and the correlation for pathological response with prognosis was examined.

The researchers found that 34.9 percent of cases that received neoadjuvant chemotherapy had grade 2 or 3 response. The effective neoadjuvant chemotherapy group (grades 2 and 3 response) had significantly better overall survival, disease-free survival, locoregional control, and freedom from distant metastasis than the less effective neoadjuvant chemotherapy group (grades 0 and 1) and the non-neoadjuvant chemotherapy group combined.

"Pathological response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in sinonasal SCC was related to disease prognosis," the authors write.