Survival rates are higher in married patients with biliary tract cancer: a population-based study

Marital status has been identified as a prognostic factor in multiple malignancies. In this study, we assessed the prognostic value of marital status in 24,035 patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database diagnosed with biliary tract cancer (BTC) between 2004 and 2014. Widowed patients were more likely to be women, elderly (> 60 years), have gallbladder cancer, and have localized SEER Stage disease than all other patients. Marital status was identified as an independent prognostic factor in both univariate and multivariate analyses, and cause-specific survival (CSS) rates were higher in married patients than unmarried patients. In addition, CSS rates were higher in ampulla of Vater cancer patients than in gallbladder cancer or cholangiocarcinoma patients. Further analysis revealed that CSS rates were lowest in widowed patients at each TNM stage and for all tumor sites. These results suggest marital status is a prognostic factor for clinical outcomes in patients with BTC, and widowed patients are at greater risk of cancer-specific mortality.