Abstract 14746: A National Level Analysis of Long-term Outcomes in Patients With Carotid Body Tumors

Abstract

Introduction: Carotid body tumors represent the most common site for extra-adrenal paragangliomas. Surgical resection is the treatment of choice as a low percentage of these tumors are malignant. Here we present long-term outcomes of a contemporary cohort of patients with a carotid body tumor. Methods: The national cancer database was quired for all cases of a carotid body tumor between 2004-2015. All baseline variables were gathered from the database. Kaplan-Meier curves were generated for the entire cohort to assess overall survival. The group was split into surgical and non-surgical cohorts. Survival was assessed via Kaplan-Meier estimates. Patients that underwent surgery were divided based on isolated surgical therapy or multimodal therapy (surgery with radiation or chemotherapy). Cox multivariable analysis was used to determine independent predictors for mortality. Results: The search returned 130 patients with a carotid body tumor. The average age of this cohort was 47 years and the majority were women (58.5%). A small proportion (9.2%) of the cohort had a metastasis at the time of diagnosis. Most patients underwent surgery (80%) followed by radiation (44.6%). The overall survival of the cohort was 81.5% at 10 years (Figure 1A) . Long-Term survival was higher in the surgical cohort (P=0.001) (Figure 1B) . Patients with multimodal therapy survived longer than those that underwent surgery alone (P=0.007) (Figure 1C). On Cox multivariable analysis (Figure 1D) , only radiation was a predictor for survival (HR 0.25, P=0.008). Having a metastasis on the time of diagnosis was a predictor for worse outcomes (HR 4.45, P=0.03). Conclusions: While surgery had a survival benefit on Kaplan-Meier analysis, when risk adjusting for other variables, radiation was the only treatment that conferred a survival benefit; an interesting finding given the historical standard of surgical management. Despite improvements in therapeutic modalities, metastasis on diagnosis carries an increased mortality, favoring aggressive treatment.