Novel Prognostic Score for Recurrent or Metastatic Head and Neck Cancer Patients treated with Nivolumab: Japanese Multi-Institutional Cohort Study

Abstract

Although several prognostic factors in nivolumab therapy have been reported in patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer (RM-HNC), these factors remain controversial. Here, we conducted a multicenter retrospective cohort study to investigate the impact of clinico-hematological factors on survival in RM-HNC patients treated with nivolumab. We retrospectively reviewed 126 RM-HNC patients from seven institutes. We evaluated the prognostic effects of clinico-hematological factors on survival using Cox proportional hazard models. The median overall survival (OS) was 12.3 months, and the 1 year-OS rate was 51.2 %. Patients without immune-related adverse events, lower relative eosinophil count, worse best overall response, higher performance status, and higher modified Glasgow Prognostic Score had significantly worse survival rates. The prognostic score, generated by combining these significantly worse prognostic factors, was more closely associated with prognosis than each factor (p for trend<0.001). Our novel prognostic score utilizing clinico-hematological factors might be useful to establish an individual treatment strategy in patients with RM-HNC treated with nivolumab therapy.