Pretreatment hemoglobin level as a prognostic factor in patients with locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract Background Anemia can compromise therapeutic outcomes in cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate hemoglobin (Hb) levels as a prognostic factor in locally advanced head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (cCRT). Methods Retrospective evaluation of patients with HNSCC treated with cCRT. Primary and secondary endpoint was to evaluate the correlation of Hb levels (≥12.5 g/dL or  Results A total of 108 patients were identified. With a median follow-up of 16.10 months median OS was 59.70 months for Hb ≥12.5 g/dL vs. 14.13 months for Hb  Conclusions In this analysis, Hb ≥12.5 g/dL correlated with significantly better OS and PFS. Further studies are needed to validate these findings.