A Population-Based Analysis of Mucoepidermoid Carcinoma of the Oral Cavity

To identify survival outcomes for patients with mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) of the oral cavity and the effects of different prognostic factors on survival.

Retrospective cohort study using a national database.

Retrospective, population-based cohort study of patients in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database who were diagnosed with MEC of the oral cavity from 1973 to 2016. Overall survival (OS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) were calculated.

A total of 1693 patients with MEC of the oral cavity were included. Of those, there are 696 males and 997 females, the average age at diagnosis being 52.4 years. The vast majority of cases (86.4%) presented with stage I and stage II disease. A total of 206 patients had received both surgical and radiation therapy (RT), while 1338 patients just had undergone only surgery and 149 with no treatment. On multivariate analysis, advanced age, stage, and histologic grade were associated with worse OS and DSS. Surgical therapy was an independent favorable predictor of OS and DSS. For radiotherapy, multivariate analysis showed that it was associated with worse DSS, whereas there was no significant difference in OS.

MEC of the oral cavity is associated with a generally favorable prognosis. Advanced age, stage, and histologic grade were independent negative prognostic factors for survival, and surgery was the main treatment to improve survival.

4 Laryngoscope, 131:E857-E863, 2021.