ABSTRACT
This study studied the coorelation between radiological response to induction chemotherapy and acheivement of pCR or near pCR. It was a retrospective analysis in which all patients who received NACT from 2008 till april 2012 were subjected to inclusion criteria. Coorelation analysis was performed between CR + PR and acheivement of pCR or near pCR. Twenty four patients were identified.The primary site of tumor was oral cavity in 19 patients (79.2%), maxilla in 2 patients (4.2%), laryngopharynx in 2 patients (4.2%) and oropharynx in 1 patient (4.2%). The clinical stage was stage IVA in 16 patients ( 66.7%) and IVB in 8 patients (33.3%). The overall response rates ie a combination of CR and PR was seen in 11patients (45.8%). The pCR was seen in 15 patients (62.5%) and rest had near pCR. There was no linear coorelation between radiological size decrement and tumor response. On coorelation analysis the spearman correlation coefficent was -0.039 (P = 0.857). This suggest that presently used radiological response criterias for response assesment in head and neck cancers severly limit our ability to identify patients who would have pCR or near pCR.
