The ratio of patients with disease of central origin was 12.5% and that for non-central origin was 87.5%. The risk factors for cerebrovascular disease such as hypertension, heart disease, and diabetes were also the risk factors for central vertigo/dizziness by the chi-squared test. To predict a central origin for vertigo/dizziness, only gaze nystagmus was the significant factor by multivariate regression analysis.

The impact of BMI is determined by the types of cancer treatment. Pretreatment BMI should be considered while deciding treatment.

No abstract

We aimed to determine whether pretreatment metabolic tumor volume of the primary tumor (T‐MTV) or T classification would be a better predictor of laryngectomy‐free survival (LFS) and overall survival (OS) after chemoradiotherapy in patients with locally advanced laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer requiring total laryngectomy. We analyzed 85 patients using a Cox proportional hazards model and evaluated its usefulness by Akaike's information criterion. A T‐MTV cut‐off value was determined by time‐dependent receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Interobserver reliability for measuring T‐MTV was estimated by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). After adjustment for covariables, T‐MTV, irrespective of whether a continuous or dichotomized variable, and T classification remained independent predictors of LFS and OS. Large T‐MTV (>28.7 mL) was associated with inferior LFS (hazard ratio [HR], 4.16; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.97–8.70; P = 0.0003) and inferior OS (HR, 3.18; 95% CI, 1.47–6.69; P = 0.004) compared with small T‐MTV (≤28.7 mL). The T‐MTV model outperformed the T classification model in predicting LFS and OS (P = 0.007 and 0.01, respectively). Three‐year LFS and OS rates for patients with small versus large T‐MTV were 68% vs 9% (P < 0.0001) and 77% vs 25% (P < 0.0001), respectively, whereas those for patients with T2‐T3 versus T4a were 61% vs 31% (P = 0.003) and 71% vs 48% (P = 0.10), respectively. ICC was 0.99 (95% CI, 0.99–1.00). Given the excellent interobserver reliability, T‐MTV is better than T classification to identify patients who would benefit from the larynx preservation approach.

Various serum biomarkers have been developed for predicting head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) prognosis. However, none of them have been proven to be clinically significant. A recent study reported that the ratio of aspartate aminotransaminase (AST) to alanine aminotransaminase (ALT) had a prognostic effect on non-metastatic cancers. This study aimed to examine the effect of the AST/ALT ratio on the survival of patients with HNSCC. Clinical data of 356 patients with locoregionally advanced HNSCC were collected. The effect of the AST/ALT ratio on overall survival was analyzed using a Cox proportional hazard model. Moreover, recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) was used to divide the patients into groups on the basis of the clinical stage and AST/ALT ratio. The prognostic ability of this grouping was validated using an independent data set (N = 167). The AST/ALT ratio ranged from 0.42 to 4.30 (median, 1.42) and was a prognostic factor for overall survival that was independent of age, primary sites, and tumor stage (hazard ratio: 1.36, confidence interval: 1.08−1.68, P = 0.010). RPA divided patients with stage IVA into the following two subgroups: high AST/ALT (≥2.3) and low AST/ALT (<2.3) subgroups. The 5-year survival rate for patients with stage III, stage IVA with a low AST/ALT ratio, stage IVA with a high AST/ALT ratio, and stage IVB were 64.8%, 49.2%, 28.6%, and 33.3%, respectively (p < 0.001). Compared with the low AST/ALT group, the adjusted hazard ratio for death was 2.17 for high AST/ALT group (confidence interval: 1.02–.22 P = 0.045). The AST/ALT ratio was demonstrated to be a prognostic factor of HNSCC. The ratio subdivided patients with stage IVA into low- and high-risk groups. Moreover, intensified treatment for the high-risk group may be considered.