Survival rates among U.S. patients with cancer of the tonsils and base of the tongue have improved dramatically in the last 20 years, according to a study in Cancer Causes and Control (January 2012, Vol. 23:1, pp. 153-164).
Using Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data, researchers from the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary employed the Kaplan-Meier method to draw survival curves and calculate survival rates and estimated adjusted hazard ratios.
They found that between the 1980s and the 2000s, the five-year overall survival rates improved significantly: 25% to 51% among patients with one primary base of tongue cancer and 28% to 60% among those with one primary tonsil cancer (p < 0.001).
In addition, the five-year cancer-specific survival improved by 222% among the tongue cancer patients and 276% among those with tonsil cancer, the study authors reported.
Survival improvement was more pronounced among male patients than among female patients regardless of age, they noted, and the improvement was generally consistent among patients with different tumor stages and treatment methods.
"The survival of patients with base of tongue and tonsil cancer has significantly improved over the last decades in the U.S.," the researchers wrote "Whether the improvement is associated with HPV [human papillomavirus] infection, screening, or early detection is worthy to study in future."
