Prognosis in mouth cancer: host factors

A personal series of 842 patients with a tumour of the oral cavity is presented. Five hundred and twelve of these patients had a histologically proven squamous cell carcinoma, and were previously untreated. Increasing age was associated with worsening performance status. Women were older at presentation than men, and tumours of the upper part of the mouth were more common in the elderly, but there was no relation between age and histological grade or stage grouping. Sex had no correlation with performance status or histological grade. However, men were more likely to have an advanced tumour, and tumours of the floor of the mouth and alveolus were much commoner in men. There was no correlation between performance status and site or histological grade, but patients in poor general condition were more likely to have stage III-IV tumours. Multivariate analysis showed that sex had no impact whatever on survival, but survival fell with increasing age and worsening performance status. The effect of age and performance status disappeared when the survival of treated patients was adjusted for deaths due to other causes.