151751-Najiba-Chargi

365 The elderly head and neck cancer patient: sarcopenia and survival MUSCLE STRENGTH Isometric handgrip strength (HGS) is strongly related with overall muscle strength [20]. Hand - grip strength was measured using a Jamar Hydraulic Handheld Dynamometer according to the recommendations of the American society of hand therapist’s (ASHT) and expressed in kilograms (kg). Patients were asked to squeeze maximally with each hand. The average score of the left and right hand was used for analysis. Patients had low HGS if the HGS was below 30kg (men) or below 20kg (women) [1]. MUSCLE PERFORMANCE The four-meter gait speed is a reflection of individual’s lower limb muscle function. It is a widely accepted way to assess muscle performance. 20 Gait speed was measured as the av - erage speed during a four-meter walking test. The time measured to complete a four-meter walk was measured. Patients had low muscle performance if the four-meter gait speed was below 0.8m/s. 1 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Data analyses was performed using IBM SPSS statistics 25. Descriptive statistics for contin - uous variables with a normal distribution were presented as mean with standard deviation (SD). Variables with a skewed distribution were presented as median with interquartile range (IQR). Categorical variables were presented as frequencies and percentages. Likelihood ratio (LR) Chi-square statistics were used for analyzing associations of the percentages of each categorical variable with the presence or absence of sarcopenia. Independent sample t-tests were used for comparing the means of the hematological and biochemical markers with the presence or absence of sarcopenia. Pearson’s correlation was used to assess the correlation between SMM, MF parameters, age and BMI. Only patients with curative treatment intent were selected for overall survival analysis. Survival was visualized using Kaplan Meier survival curves and number at risk tables. We defined overall survival as the time elapsed between the date of histologic diagnosis and death or date of last follow-up, whichever occurred first. We calculated the 3-year overall survival rate for patients with sarcopenia and without sar - copenia, Wilcoxon test was used for analyzing the statistical significance of the difference in 3-year overall survival rate. A cox proportional hazard regression model was used for univar - iate and multivariate analysis of survival. Covariates used in the multivariate analysis were selected based on clinical significance or selected based on statistical significance (p<0.05) in univariate cox regression analysis. Statistical significance was evaluated at the 0.05 level using two-sided tests. 18