Race, Gender Affect Laryngeal Cancer Survival

THURSDAY, Dec. 20 (HealthDay News) -- A patient's sex and race, alongwith the type of treatment they receive, can impact their survival after adiagnosis of advanced laryngeal cancer, say U.S. researchers.
They analyzed data from a national cancer registry on more than 7,000patients diagnosed with advanced laryngeal cancer between 1995 and1998.
Of those patients, 53.6 percent had a total laryngectomy (removal ofthe larynx), 30.6 percent had radiation therapy (radiotherapy) alone, and15.8 percent had combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
"Controlling for the other included factors, the radiotherapy andchemo-radiotherapy groups had lower odds of survival than did the totallaryngectomy group. The increased risk associated with death isapproximately 30 percent for the chemo-radiotherapy group and 60 percentfor the radiotherapy group," wrote study authors Dr. Amy Y. Chen, of EmoryUniversity and the American Cancer Society, and Dr. Michael Halpern, ofthe American Cancer Society.
They also found that men were less likely to survive than women;patients with stage IV disease were less likely to survive than those withstage III disease; black patients were more likely to die than whitepatients; and uninsured patients or those with Medicaid, Medicare or othergovernment health plan coverage were more likely to die than those withprivate health insurance.
"We do not believe that insurance status in this analysis representsdifferential treatment or quality of care for patients with advancedlaryngeal cancer. Rather, insurance status is likely a proxy for multiplemedical issues, including usual source of medical care, participation inscreening and preventive care activities and exposure to related riskfactors, including alcohol and/or tobacco use and poor diet, all of whichcan influence overall survival," the study authors wrote.
"In conclusion, this analysis demonstrates that total laryngectomyyields the highest likelihood of survival for patients with advancedlaryngeal cancer," the researchers added.
The study was published in the December issue of the Archives ofOtolaryngology -- Head and Neck Cancer.