CLO22-081: Clinical Efficacy and Quality of Life of Oral Cancer Patients Treated With Paclitaxel/Cisplatin/5-FU Vs Paclitaxel/Carboplatin Chemotherapeutic Regimens in a Tertiary Cancer Center in Eastern India

Background: Oral cancer continues to be an oncologic challenge in the context of anticancer therapy. The dose-limiting toxicity of chemotherapy negatively impacts the clinical efficacy and quality of life (QoL). The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy and QoL of paclitaxel/cisplatin/5-FU (TPF) vs paclitaxel/carboplatin (PC) chemotherapeutic regimens in the treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients. Methods: Total 203 OSCC patients were recruited and 56 were treated with TPF chemotherapeutic regimen while 157 underwent PC chemotherapeutic regimen. Patient-reported outcomes were assessed at the start and end of the treatment cycle. Quality of life (QoL) was assessed using the FACT-H&N questionnaires, clinical side effects & toxicity profile analyzed and scored according to the CTCEA Ver.4.0 and the response were evaluated according to RECIST Ver.1.1. Overall survival was assessed by using Kaplan Meier curve. Result: 85.2% of the patients diagnosed with stage IV were aged between 41-60 years (95%) and reportedly habituated with tobacco (44.4%) for the duration of 15-20 years. The most common site for oral cancer was tongue (34%) and found to have ulceration (31.5%) as severe symptom. The maximum number of patients diagnosed with SCC (36%) received adjuvant chemotherapy (56.7%). 25.6% patients underwent TPF chemotherapy while 74.4% of patients went for PC chemotherapeutic regimen. Patients mainly experienced grade III and IV haematological toxicities like anaemia (13.3%) followed by neutropenia (2.4%) and thrombocytopenia (2.4%) whereas non-hematological toxicities include diarrhoea (30.5%), vomiting (26.6%), fever (23.1%), myalgia (19.7%) and mucositis (5.41%). 82 (40.39%) patients succumbed to death due to Grade 5 toxicity. The overall response rate (ORR) was 33.3%. The progression free survival (PFS) was 20.32% (TPF 11.5% & PC 9.27%) up to 3 years. There was no significant survival benefit (p>0.05) between the treatment regimes. Total 71% of the patients experienced a compromise in their QoL following therapy completion. Conclusion: This study observes no significant difference between the patients receiving TPF and PC regimens in their clinical efficacy and QoL. None of the combinations (TPF and PC) was found to be superior to the other in case of survival benefit and patients succumbed to death due to heavy toxicity in both the regimens.