The impact of comorbidity on the survival of patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Conclusions: In survival analysis, the combined Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) can be considered as a prognostic factor independent of the tumor node metastasis (TNM) classification, tumor stage, and tumor location. Severe comorbidity was the factor that had the greatest impact on prognosis in cases of initial tumor. Objective: To study the influence of comorbidity on the survival of patients undergoing surgery for larynx cancer. Methods: This was a retrospective study of the survival of 231 patients with laryngeal cancer who underwent surgery between 1995 and 2002. The CCI was used to assess comorbidity, the Kaplan–Meier method was used for survival analysis, and the Cox proportional risk regression model was used to identify independent prognostic factors. Results: The multivariate analysis of specific mortality showed that patients classified as having severe comorbidity (CCI) were more likely to die (adjusted hazard ratio (adjHR) 1.85, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.07–3.17). This difference was more important in patients with early tumor stages than in those with advanced stages.

Keywords::

• Larynx
• cancer
• prognosis
• Charlson index

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Cristina Fernández Pérez, from the Clinical Epidemiology Unit of the “Clínico San Carlos” Hospital (Madrid, Spain) for her support and her development of the statistical study.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the study.