The impact of early percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy placement on treatment completeness and nutritional status in locally advanced head and neck cancer patients receiving chemoradiotherapy.

To investigate the impact of early insertion of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy-tube on nutritional status and completeness of concurrent chemotherapy in locally advanced head and neck cancer patients treated with chemoradiotherapy. Twenty-three patients were enrolled into this prospective study. Gastrostomy-tube was inserted in patients before the initiation of chemoradiotherapy. There was not any significant change in nutritional parameters of patients that used their tube during treatment. Despite the grade 3 mucositis, the planned concurrent chemotherapy could be given in 70% of the patients. However, nine patients had weak compliance and their body weight (P = 0.01) and body mass index (P = 0.01) deteriorated in the first 4 weeks of chemoradiotherapy. The completeness of concurrent chemo-rate was 44% in these patients. Toxicity, requiring aggressive supportive care, may limit the chemotherapy part of curative concomitant chemoradiotherapy. By providing adequate enteral nutrition the insertion of gastrostomy-tube can increase the completeness rate of concurrent chemotherapy.