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National Cancer Database Analysis of the effect of brachytherapy on overall survival in patients with base of tongue cancer
Author(s) -
Silva Scott R.,
Martin Brendan,
Choi Mehee,
Emami Bahman,
Hurst Newton J.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
head and neck
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.012
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1097-0347
pISSN - 1043-3074
DOI - 10.1002/hed.25497
Subject(s) - brachytherapy , hazard ratio , medicine , cancer , tongue , proportional hazards model , survival analysis , oncology , radiation therapy , confidence interval , pathology
Background We performed an analysis of the National Cancer Database (NCDB) to evaluate overall survival (OS) in patients with base of tongue (BOT) cancer treated with external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) combined with brachytherapy (BT). Methods The tongue NCDB Participant User File was used to obtain demographic and clinical patient data. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to determine OS. Significance was determined using univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models. Results At 3 years, OS was 69.6%, 77.1%, and 63.7% for patients treated with EBRT ( n = 27 954), EBRT + BT ( n = 209), or BT alone ( n = 154), respectively ( P = .01). On multivariable analysis, the instantaneous hazard of death for patients receiving EBRT + BT was 25% (Hazard ratio [HR] = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.58‐0.98) lower than patients receiving only EBRT ( P = .03). Conclusions The addition of BT to EBRT in BOT cancer has an OS benefit.