Pretreatment body mass index as an independent prognostic factor in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with chemoradiotherapy: findings from a randomised trial

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the relationship between the pretreatment body mass index (BMI) and the clinical outcomes in patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Methods: From August 2002 to April 2005, 400 patients with stage III or stage IVa nasopharyngeal carcinoma were recruited for a randomised clinical trial of induction chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy or concurrent chemoradiotherapy. The patients were divided into four groups of underweight (BMI<18.5kg/m(2)), normal weight (BMI 18.5-22.9kg/m(2)), overweight (BMI 23.0-27.4kg/m(2)) or obese (BMI≥27.5kg/m(2)) according to the World Health Organization classifications for Asian populations. The differences in the long-term survival, of these four BMI groups were analysed.

Results: The 5-year failure-free survival rates for the underweight, normal weight, overweight and obese groups were 44%, 61%, 68% and 73%, respectively (p=0.014), and the 5-year overall survival rates were 51%, 68%, 80% and 72% (p=0.001), respectively. BMI was a strongly favoured prognostic factor of overall survival and failure-free survival in a Cox regression model.

Conclusions: Pretreatment body mass index was a simple, reliable independent prognostic factor for patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma treated with chemoradiotherapy.