Background: The risk factors for the survival of elderly patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) are multifarious. Here, we developed a novel clinical signature to serve as an indicator of prognosis in these patients.
Materials and methods: Clinicopathological data were collected for 554 patients aged ≥ 60 years who were treated for primary OSCC. Overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival, and disease-free survival were the primary outcomes.
Results: Multivariate cox regression analysis showed that high N stage, low hemoglobin level, low body mass index (BMI), and high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) showed a poor survival (P < 0.05). A nomogram was constructed with a c-index of 0.702.
Conclusion: A novel clinical signature including hemoglobin level, BMI, and NLR, which are obtained through noninvasive examinations can be used as prognostic indicators in clinical practice for elderly patients with OSCC.
Keywords: Clinical signature; Elderly patients; Oral squamous cell carcinoma; Prediction model; Prognosis.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.