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Objective: In Taiwan, the median age of diagnosis for oral cavity cancer is 51 year old, which is about 10 years earlier than that in Western countries. A recent study assessing the effect of marriage on outcomes for elderly oral cavity cancer patients (≥66 years old) showed that marriage was associated with better survival. However, little is known about the prognostic significance of marital status in oral cavity cancer patients aged 65 years and younger.Methods: Data from 2007 to 2014 were collected from the Cancer Registry Dataset of the Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital. We reviewed the records of all newly diagnosed patients with oral cavity cancer who were aged 65 years and younger and being treated by primary surgery with or without neck dissection or adjuvant therapy. None of the included patients had distant metastasis upon diagnosis. In total, 457 patients were indentified. We used multivariate Cox regression model to evaluate the effect of marriage on disease-specific survival rates after adjusting for demographic variables and treatments.Results: There was no significant difference between the married and unmarried groups in stage at diagnosis or treatment. The 5-year disease-specific survival was 70.9% in the married group and 51.2% in the unmarried group (P=0.001). Multivariate analysis with Cox regression showed that unmarried patients had worse disease-specific survival (unmarried, adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1.51, 95% CI: 1.06-2.16). Subgroup analysis among patients stratified by the independent factors in multivariate analysis revealed that being unmarried was associated with a trend of worse survival in most stratified groups.Conclusion: Marriage was associated with better disease-specific survival for oral cavity cancer patients aged 65 years and younger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Several comorbid measures have been developed and demonstrated the predictive ability for cancer mortality. We conducted a retrospective study on oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients to compare the Charlson comorbidity index score (CCIS) to the Elixhauser comorbidity index score (ECIS).Methods: Newly diagnosed OSCC patients (n=232) post major surgery with or without adjuvant therapy were identified from the cancer registry database between 2006 and 2011. Comorbidities present prior to the cancer diagnosis were obtained and adapted to the CCIS and ECIS. The prevalence of comorbid conditions and the influence on disease-specific survival (DSS) rate were calculated and analyzed by Cox regression model. The discriminatory ability of these two comorbid measures was evaluated by using the adjusted hazard ratio and Akaike information criterion (AIC) in a multivariate regression model. The prediction accuracy was assessed using Harrell's c-statistic.Results: Most of the patients (93.5%) were male with a mean age of 54 ± 11 years and 77 of them (33.1%) had at least one comorbid condition. The ECIS was associated DSS, with an additional 10% increased risk observed for mortality for each increased score (HR, 1.10; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.03-1.18) after adjusting with pathological risk features. However, the CCIS was not an independent prognostic factor for these patients. The ECIS increased discriminatory ability but the CCIS did not improve discrimination.Conclusions: Comorbid conditions significantly influenced the clinical outcomes of patient with OSCC post major surgery. A higher ECIS was associated with worse disease specific survival indicative of a valuable prognostic indicator. The ECIS may be considered in further clinical trials for a variety of cancers, including head and neck cancers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Patients with oral cancer utilize considerable health care resources, particularly when wide resection of the tumor and reconstruction with pedicle flap/free flap is performed. This study was conducted to explore the relationship between survival rates and surgeon volume. A total of 1256 patients who underwent resections for oral cancer in 2005 were identified from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Survival analysis, the Cox proportional regression model, and propensity score were used to evaluate the association between 3-year survival rates and surgeon caseloads. Oral cancer patients treated by high-volume surgeons (caseload 22–117) had better survival rates (hazard ratio [HR]=0.656; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.484–0.89; P =0.007) using the Cox proportional regression model after adjusting for patients’ comorbid conditions, hospital, and surgeon characteristics. When analyzed by propensity score, the adjusted 3-year survival rate was 74% for patients treated by high-volume surgeons compared to 58% in the low/medium-volume group (P =0.019). We concluded that for patients who underwent oral cancer resection and reconstruction, after adjusting for differences in the case mix, high-volume surgeons had better 3-year survival rates. Treatment strategies adopted by high-volume surgeons should be analyzed further and utilized more widely. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background:Oral cancer leads to a considerable use of health care resources. Wide resection of the tumor and reconstruction with a pedicle flap/ free flap is widely used. This study was conducted to investigate if young age at the time of diagnosis of oral cancer requiring this treatment confers a worse prognosis. Methods:A total of 2339 patients who underwent resections for oral cancer from 2004 to 2005 were identified from The Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. Survival analysis, Cox proportional regression model, propensity scores, and sensitivity test were used to evaluate the association between 5-year survival rates and age. Results:In the Cox proportional regression model, the older age group (>65 years) had the worst survival rate (hazard ratio [HR], 1.80; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.45-2.22; P<0.001). When analyzed using the propensity scores, the adjusted 5-year survival rates were also poorer for oral cancer patients with older age (>65 years), compared to those with younger age (<45 years) (P<0.001). In sensitivity test, the adjusted hazard ratio remained no statistically elevated in the younger age group (<45 years). Conclusions:For those oral cancer patients who underwent wide excision and reconstruction, young age did not confer a worse prognosis using a Cox proportional regression model, propensity scores or sensitivity test. Young oral cancer patients may be treated using general guidelines and do not require more aggressive treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]