Setton et al reported predictors of gastrostomy tube dependency in a patient with oropharyngeal cancer. Gastrostomy dependency is a marker of severe dysphagia. The authors are from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Hospital, University of Toronto, and University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Patient selection: oropharyngeal cancer treated with definitive intensity-modulated radiotherapy.
Gastrostomy tube dependency was at around 64% soon after therapy but had dropped to under 10% at 1 year. The rate slowly decreases as time passes.
Predictors of gastrostomy tube dependency at 1 year:
(1) advanced age (OR 1.066), with rate higher when > 65 years and lesser so for 50 to 65 years
(2) greater number of smoking pack years, with rate higher ran > 30 pack years and lesser so for 11 to 30
(3) N3 category
(4) receipt of cytotoxic chemotherapy (OR 2.3)
Additional factors:
(1) T3-T4 tumor
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