Importance of comorbidity in hypopharyngeal cancer

✍ Scribed by Akihiro Homma; Tomohiro Sakashita; Nobuhiko Oridate; Fumiyuki Suzuki; Seigo Suzuki; Hiromitsu Hatakeyama; Takatsugu Mizumachi; Shigenari Taki; Satoshi Fukuda

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 94 KB
• Volume: 32
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1043-3074
• DOI: 10.1002/hed.21158

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Background.

Comorbidity has an impact on survival in laryngeal cancer in several reports. However, the importance of comorbidity in hypopharyngeal cancer (HPC) has not been reported.

Methods.

A retrospective medical record review of 156 patients with HPC treated between 1995 and 2005 was performed. Comorbid illness was measured by the Adult Comorbidity Evaluation‐27. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to determine the factors related to overall survival.

Results.

Comorbidity was absent in 55 (35.2%) of the patients, mild in 39 (25%), moderate in 28 (17.9%), and severe in 34 (21.8%). There were statistically significant differences between the survival rates in accord with age, stage, subsite, and comorbidity (45.1% for none or mild vs 27.7% for moderate or severe; p = .0073). Age, stage, and comorbidity were identified as independent prognostic factors in the multivariate analysis.

Conclusion.

Comorbidity, along with the clinical stage, should be considered in treatment planning for patients with HPC. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck, 2010