A Study of Peripheral Blood Parameters to Predict Response to Induction Chemotherapy and Overall Survival in Advanced Laryngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Purpose: the purpose of this study was to screen peripheral blood parameters and construct models predicting the prognosis and induction chemotherapy (IC) response in locally advanced laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) patients. Methods: A total of 128 stage III/IVa LSCC patients (who required a total laryngectomy) were enrolled in a retrospective study from January 2013 to September 2020 at Beijing Tongren Hospital of Capital Medical University. Among them, 62 patients received IC (IC group), and 66 patients immediately underwent a total laryngectomy (TL) after diagnosis (surgery group). Demographic information and peripheral blood parameters were collected for further analysis. The overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and disease-specific survival (DSS) were compared between the two groups. The prognosis and survival were also compared between patients with laryngeal function preservation (LFP) and those with TL. Results: The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve for IC response in the IC group showed that the AUC of the blood model based on the four peripheral blood parameters of fibrinogen (FIB), platelet (PLT), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), and albumin (ALB) was significantly higher than the TNM stage model's AUC (0.7932 vs. 0.6568). We constructed a nomogram blood model to predict IC response (C-Index = 0.793). Regarding the OS of all patients, an ROC analysis for overall survival, the Kaplan-Meier (K-M) method with a log-rank test, and multivariate analysis indicated age, clinical stage, FIB, and hemoglobin (HGB) were independent prognostic factors for the OS of LSCC patients. The blood-clinical logistic model (AUC = 0.7979) was constructed based on the four prognosis factors, which were superior to the blood (AUC = 0.6867) or clinical models (AUC = 0.7145) alone to predict OS. We constructed a nomogram model based on age, clinical stage, FIB, and HGB to predict OS for LSCC patients (C-Index = 0.792). Besides this, there were no significant differences in OS, PFS, and DSS between IC and surgery groups or LFP and TL groups. Conclusion: Peripheral blood parameters help predict IC response and overall survival. Furthermore, induction chemotherapy significantly improves laryngeal function preservation without lowering the survival prognosis.