Abstract C47: Gender and racial disparities in long-term survival of oral and oropharyngeal cancer in the United States

Abstract

Abstract Purpose: Increased survivorship of head and neck cancer necessitates longer-term care for patients. However, no previous study from the United States has described head and neck survivorship beyond 15 years. The study aimed at describing 25-year survival of oral and oropharyngeal cancer; investigating the effect of race and gender on long-term survivorship. Methods: The Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database was queried for clinically and pathologically-defined adult oral and oropharyngeal cancer cases with at least 25 years follow-up. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were produced and a long-rank test was used to identify differences. A cox proportional hazards model was created including race, gender and other significant covariates. Results: Of the 22,162 patients identified, 70.3% were males. Overall 10-year survival is 30.8% and survival declined through the follow up period, with only 8.9% alive at 25 years post-diagnosis. African American males show the poorest overall and disease specific survival rates (p<0.001). On multivariate analysis for cancer-specific survival, after controlling for age, marital status, cancer site, stage, treatment type, and socioeconomic status, African Americans had a 40% increase in the hazard of death compared to Caucasians (HR = 1.40, 95% CI = 1.35-1.46), while female gender was associated with a 9% reduction in mortality risk (HR=0.91, 95% CI = 0.88-0.94). Conclusion: Overall survival for patients with oral and oropharyngeal cancer is poor with African Americans and males demonstrating the worst survival over both short and long term follow-up. This illustrates the need for a cancer survival plan that incorporates the role of disparities in overall cancer outcomes. Citation Format: Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, Sean T. Massa, Kara M. Christopher, Ronald J. Walker, Mark A. Varvares. Gender and racial disparities in long-term survival of oral and oropharyngeal cancer in the United States. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eighth AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Nov 13-16, 2015; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2016;25(3 Suppl):Abstract nr C47.