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Marriage and mortality in bladder carcinoma
Author(s) -
Gore John L.,
Kwan Lorna,
Saigal Christopher S.,
Litwin Mark S.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/cncr.21295
Subject(s) - medicine , cystectomy , epidemiology , proportional hazards model , psychosocial , bladder cancer , lymph node , marital status , oncology , multivariate analysis , population , carcinoma , stage (stratigraphy) , surveillance, epidemiology, and end results , survival analysis , gynecology , cancer , cancer registry , environmental health , psychiatry , paleontology , biology
BACKGROUND Being married confers significant benefits in survival for patients with a variety of chronic conditions including breast and prostate carcinoma. The authors attempted to determine whether marital status is associated with survival in patients undergoing radical cystectomy for bladder carcinoma. METHODS The authors identified 7262 subjects from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results public‐use database who underwent radical cystectomy for transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. They performed survival analyses using Kaplan–Meier estimates and Cox proportional hazards models. The authors created multivariate models to evaluate the independent association between marital status and survival, controlling for pathologic stage, lymph node status, age, race/ethnicity, and gender. RESULTS Married subjects were older and more often male, white, and had earlier disease stage at diagnosis. Married subjects had significantly better survival than did single or widowed subjects ( P < 0.001), and married subjects revealed a trend toward better survival than separated/divorced subjects ( P = 0.20). Multivariate modeling revealed that compared with single subjects, those who were married had better survival, independent of age at the time of diagnosis, gender, race/ethnicity, disease stage, and lymph node status ( P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Marriage was associated with improved survival in patients with bladder carcinoma, independent of other factors known to influence mortality in this population. Although the mechanisms underlying this survival advantage are unknown, possibilities include differences in cancer screening, risk behaviors, and access to medical care. The interaction between psychosocial factors and the body's immune function may further explain the differential survival in this cohort. Cancer 2005. © 2005 American Cancer Society.