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Improved survival among patients with base of tongue and tonsil cancer in the United States

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Abstract

Objective

To examine if survival has changed over the last 20 years in patients with base of tongue and tonsil cancers in the United States.

Methods

Using SEER data, we employed Kaplan–Meier method to draw survival curves and calculate survival rates, and estimated adjusted hazard ratios (HR).

Results

From the 1980s to the 2000s, the 5-year overall survival rates statistically significantly improved by 100% from 25 to 51% among patients with one primary base of tongue cancer and 28–60% among those with one primary tonsil cancer (p values for trend <0.001). In addition, the 5-year cancer-specific survival improved by 222.4 and 276%, respectively, among two types of patients. Survival improvement was more pronounced among male patients than among female patients regardless of young or old age, while the improvement was generally consistent among patients with different tumor stages and treatment methods. In contrast, however, those patients with subsequent multiple cancers showed no improvement in overall survival over time.

Conclusions

The survival of patients with base of tongue and tonsil cancer has significantly improved over the last decades in the United States. Whether the improvement is associated with HPV infection, screening, or early detection is worthy to study in future.

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Acknowledgments

Drs. Yu and Schantz had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Drs. Yu and Schantz developed study concept and design, interpreted analytic results, and drafted the manuscript. Drs. Zhang and Hashibe criticized and revised the manuscript for important intellectual content.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biostatistics and Epidemiology Service, The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, 310 East 14th Street, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    Guo-Pei Yu

  2. Department of Otolaryngology, The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, North Building 6th Floor, 310 East 14th Street, New York, NY, 10003, USA

    Guo-Pei Yu, Vikas Mehta, Daniel Branovan, Qiang Huang & Stimson P. Schantz

  3. New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY, 10595, USA

    Guo-Pei Yu, Vikas Mehta, Daniel Branovan, Qiang Huang & Stimson P. Schantz

  4. Medical Informatics Center, Peking University, No. 38 Xueyuan Road, 100191, Beijing, China

    Guo-Pei Yu

  5. Division of Public Health, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT, 84018, USA

    Mia Hashibe

  6. Department of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, USA

    Zuo-Feng Zhang

Authors
  1. Guo-Pei Yu
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  2. Vikas Mehta
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  3. Daniel Branovan
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  4. Qiang Huang
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  5. Mia Hashibe
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  7. Stimson P. Schantz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stimson P. Schantz.

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Yu, GP., Mehta, V., Branovan, D. et al. Improved survival among patients with base of tongue and tonsil cancer in the United States. Cancer Causes Control 23, 153–164 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-011-9864-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-011-9864-y

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