Materials and Method: Eighty-two patients diagnosed at geriatric age between January 2016 and November 2024 were included in the study. All patients had locally advanced disease (Stage 3 and Stage 4 disease). Age, tumor diameter, body mass index, Geriatric Nutritional Index, neutrophillymphocyte ratio , platelet-lymphocyte ratio , c-reactive protein, hemoglobin, lactate dehydrogenase, and primary tumor standardized uptake value maximum (pSUVmax) numerical variables were analyzed. Geriatric Nutritional Index was divided into four subgroups; patients with> 98 were considered as no risk for malnutrition, patients with? 98 and ? 92 were considered as mild risk, patients with< 92 and ? 82 considered as moderate risk and patients with< 82 considered as high risk.
Results: The median overall survival of the patients was 16.5 months. The median overall survival of patients with severe-risk Geriatric Nutritional Index was 5 months, while the median overall survival of patients with no-risk group was 44 months (p=0.067). In multivariate Coxregression analysis Geriatric Nutritional Index was identified as the single factor independently affecting survival (p: 0.032).
Conclusion: Geriatric Nutritional Index gave a comparable result with clinical and laboratory parameters known to have an effect on prognosis. Especially in geriatric patients, who are a group vulnerable to neglect in terms of treatment, a practical evaluation and Geriatric Nutritional Index calculation before oncological process planning may be guiding in terms of creating a survival prediction and deciding on the treatment process.
Keywords : Geriatrics; Head and Neck Neoplasms; Nutrition Assessment; Mortality; Aged