Early death in supraglottic laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma: A population-based study

Supraglottic laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is the second most common type of laryngeal cancer with a poor prognosis. Current population-based estimates of the early death rate and associated factors for early death of supraglottic LSCC are lacking. The purpose of this study was to assess the early death rate and related factors for early death in patients with supraglottic LSCC.

We identified 3733 adult patients diagnosed with supraglottic LSCC between 2010 and 2017 for whom the vital status at 3 months was known from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Patients were staged according to the seventh edition of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging system. The early death (survival time ≤ 3 months) rate was calculated. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the risk factors associated with the early death rate.

313 (8.38%) of the 3733 patients died within 3 months of diagnosis of supraglottic LSCC. Of these, 225 patients died from cancer-specific causes. Multivariate logistic regression analyses confirmed that advanced age, male sex, advanced T stage, advanced N stage, advanced M stage, and not undergoing treatment (surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy) had significant correlations with all-cause early death in supraglottic LSCC. In addition, advanced age, advanced T stage, advanced N stage, advanced M stage, and not undergoing treatment (surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy) were significantly correlated with cancer specificity in supraglottic LSCC.

When a tumor is newly diagnosed, we should pay close attention to sex, age, unmarried status and AJCC TNM staging to quickly detect supraglottic LSCC patients with a tendency toward early death. These findings have implications for precise prognosis prediction and individualized and personalized patient counseling and therapy.