Predicting the spread of head and neck cancer tumors to surrounding lymph nodes based on genetic testing

Abstract

Head and neck cancer (HNSC) is a polygenic disease with severe disabling consequences and high mortality.it is the 6th most common cancer in the world. The increase in the incidence in people under 40 years of age, frequent diagnosis at an advanced stage requires the development of prevention measures for this disease. One of the ways to solve this problem is to identify and use in practice biomarkers that detect changes at an early preclinical stage and an approach for assessing the total risk of multifactorial pathology. An approach was developed and risk patterns typical for patients with head and neck cancer were identified. the mathematical model takes into account polymorphisms in 17 genes and shows a sensitivity of more than 16% and a specificity of more than 93%. Validation on a test sample showed 10% sensitivity and 82% specificity, which suggests that the prognosis identifies patients with high risk in the presence of key markers.