Pretreatment hemoglobin level as a prognostic factor in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

AIM: Evaluate pretreatment hemoglobin values as a prognostic factor in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy. BACKGROUND: Anemia is one of the most prevalent laboratory abnormalities in oncological disease. It leads to a decrease in cellular oxygen supply, altering radiosensitivity of tumor cells and compromising therapeutic outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Retrospective evaluation of patients with HNSCC treated with cCRT. Primary and secondary endpoint was to evaluate the correlation of Hb levels (≥12.5 g/dL or <12.5 g/dL) at the beginning of cCRT with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS), respectively. RESULTS: A total of 108 patients were identified. With a median follow-up of 16.10 months median OS was 59.70 months for Hb ≥12.5 g/dL vs. 14.13 months for Hb <12.5 g/dL (p = 0.004). PFS was 12.29 months for Hb ≥12.5 g/dL and 1.68 months for Hb <12.5 g/dL (p = 0.016). CONCLUSIONS: In this analysis, Hb ≥12.5 g/dL correlated with significantly better OS and PFS. Further studies are needed to validate these findings.

Relevant factors for treatment outcome and time to healing in medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaws - A retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Risk factors for medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (MRONJ) are well known, although few studies evaluate the factors that influence treatment outcomes in MRONJ and whether discontinuing antiresorptive medication influences healing. PURPOSE: (1) Describe the characteristics of a population of patients with MRONJ. (2) Identify the factors associated with favourable outcomes. (3) Identify a temporal correlation between discontinuation of antiresorptives and healing time. METHODS: A retrospective longitudinal cohort study was carried out, including 77 patients with MRONJ treated between 2004 and 2016. Primary outcome was defined as healed/improved vs. worse/stable. Time to healing was set as the secondary outcome. Statistical significance was defined as p < 0.05. RESULTS: Primary disease, route of administration, lesion location, and development of complications influenced the outcome of treatment. Significant differences in outcomes according to primary disease (p < 0.05) were found when staging, gender, and lesion location were held constant. Time to healing was longer for patients who discontinued medication more than 3 months after diagnosis than for those who discontinued at diagnosis or before - respectively, 36, 9, and 7 months (p = 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The outcome of MRONJ treatment may be influenced by primary disease and route of administration of antiresorptives. Antiresorptive medication discontinuation contributes to reduce healing time in MRONJ.

Alteraçöes gengivais em crianças a efetuar medicaçäo anti-epiléptica: 4 anos de avaliaçäo clínica / Gingival alterations in children taking anti-epileptic medication: 4 years of clinical evaluation

Os autores efetuaram durante 4 anos a avaliaçäo clínica das alteraçöes gengivais em crianças a fazer medicaçäo anti-epiléptica. Foram seguidas 300 crianças de risco médico acrescido, de ambos os sexos, até os 12 anos de idade; tomaram como grupo testemunha igual número de crianças saudáveis, da mesma faixa etária. Analisaram a distribuiçäo das crianças consoante com o sexo e a idade, em ambos os grupos. Verificaram o número de casos de crianças com epilepsia e a data do diagnóstico, início da terapêutica e ainda o fármaco utilizado. Determinaram a prevalência de hiperplasia gengival nos diferentes grupos e a sua correlaçäo com a medicaçäo, a higiene oral e o tipo de dieta. Fizeram propostas terapêuticas com base na experiência que obtiveram. Concluíram que a hiperplasia gengival se encontra predominantemente associada à Fenitoína e à Primidona; apresenta também uma íntima relaçäo com a deficiente higiene oral e com a dieta mole