British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Volume 44, Issue 4 , Pages 283-288, August 2006

Feasibility study of the retrospective use of the Adult Comorbidity Evaluation index (ACE-27) in patients with cancer of the head and neck who had radiotherapy☆

  • Simon N. Rogers

      Affiliations

    • Regional Maxillofacial Unit, University Hospital Aintree, Aintree Trust, Liverpool L9 1AL, UK
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +44 151 529 5287; fax: +44 151 529 5288.
    • ,
  • Amir Aziz

      Affiliations

    • Liverpool University, UK
    • ,
  • Derek Lowe

      Affiliations

    • Mossley Cheshire, UK
    • ,
  • David J. Husband

      Affiliations

    • Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology, Wirral, Merseyside, UK

Received 21 November 2004; accepted 20 June 2005.

Abstract 

The Adult Comorbidity Evaluation index (ACE-27) is a relatively new measure of comorbidity and the aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of retrospective examination of casenotes to estimate this index in patients who were given radiotherapy for head and neck cancer.

We examined the casenotes of 157 of 168 consecutive patients diagnosed with an index primary tumour of the head and neck at the Clatterbridge Centre of Oncology in 1992 and 1993. Three comorbidity measures, the ACE-27, Charlson comorbidity index (CL) and Washington University Head Neck Cancer Index (WUHNCI) were calculated.

In the grading of the ACE-27, 5 patients (3%) were grade 3, 21 (13%) were grade 2, 57 (36%) were grade 1 and 74 (47%) were grade zero. There was a trend in survival by ACE-27 grading with little difference between mild and moderate severity (p=0.08). There were no significant correlations between survival and either the Charlson index (p=0.80) or the WUHNCI (p=0.68). There were no significant correlations of any of the indices or of clinico-demographic factors with recurrence rates.

Keywords: ACE-27, Head and neck cancer, Comorbidity, Radiotherapy, Survival

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☆ Ethics committee approval for the study was obtained from the Clatterbridge Centre of Oncology Research Ethics Committee.

PII: S0266-4356(05)00214-7

doi:10.1016/j.bjoms.2005.06.025

British Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Volume 44, Issue 4 , Pages 283-288, August 2006

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