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“Christie Regimen” palliative radiotherapy in advanced head-and-neck cancer: A single-center experience

Background: Relevance of aggressive treatment in advanced head neck squamous cell cancers(HNSCC) is debatable in view of expected poor outcome. Long treatment duration only adds up to the cost of treatment without any improvements in outcomes. Aims and Objectives: To assess the outcomes of hypofractionated “Christie” palliative radiotherapy regimen in advanced HNSCC Materials and Methods: Patients of advanced HNSCC registered from June 2015 to June 2019 were treated by parallel pair field technique on Cobalt60 machine (Theatron 780E) to total dose of 50 Gray/16 fractions over 3.2 weeks. Toxicity was scored using Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG) criteria and response was evaluated as per WHO criteria. Results: Records of 110 patients of HNSCC with mean age of 56.19 years were analysed. Evaluation at 4-8 weeks after radiotherapy resulted in a complete response (CR) in 19.1%, partial response (PR) in 32.7%, stable disease (SD) in 29.1% and progressive disease (PD) in 3.6%, while 15.5% patients did not report for post treatment evaluation. Median progression free survival was 9.52 months (95% CI 5.9 – 13.1 months). The median overall survival was 12.7 ± 2.2 months (95% CI 8.2 – 17.2). Median time to progression after completion of radiotherapy was 84 days. Grade IV dermatitis and mucositis was encountered in 2.7% and 1.8% cases respectively, requiring hospitalization. Conclusion: Christie regimen for advanced HNSCC is a clinically viable option with acceptable outcomes in a resource constrained setting.