Do Nutritional and Inflammatory Biomarkers Have Prognostic Significance in the Early Post Operative Period in Head and Neck Cancer? – A Pilot Study

This pilot study evaluated prognostic significance of patient/tumor factors and nutritional/inflammatory parameters with respect to the early post operative complications such as Wound Infection (WI) rates and Length of Hospital Stay (LOS) in 26 Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) surgical patients. The prognostic indices were calculated using patient and tumor related variables including age, sex, co-morbidity, tobacco usage, pathological diagnosis, hemoglobin (Hb) and albumin. The WI rate in the present study was found to be 30% and significantly correlated with both tobacco usage (p=0.021) and nutritional indices such as Albumin/ Globulin ratio (A/G) (p = 0.034) and Nutritional Risk Index (NRI) (p = 0.043). LOS (9.32 ± 2.719) was significantly correlated to Albumin levels (p = 0.002), A/G ratio (p = 0.02) and Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) (p = 0.006) and NRI (p = 0.002). This pilot study suggested that a positive history of tobacco usage and immune nutritional factors may influence early post-operative outcomes in head and neck surgery.