Poor Survival of Patients With Very Small But Locally Advanced (T4) Oropharyngeal Cancer

Objective : The size of T4 tumor could vary in oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC). Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database, this study aimed to investigate the role of tumor size in the prognosis of patients with T4 OPSCC. Study Design: Retrospective cross-sectional. Setting: SEER-Medicare-linked database. Methods: This study enrolled 1153 patients diagnosed with T4 OPSCC from the SEER registry between 2010 and 2016. The primary study variables were tumor size, human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, and disease-specific survival (DSS). Primary tumor size and clinicopathological variables according to HPV status were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: The 5-year DSS of patients with HPV-negative T4 OPSCC tumors ≤1 cm was worse than that of patients with tumors >1 cm (P < .001). The results were consistent even after propensity score matching (P = .002). Tumors ≤1 cm had a hazard ratio (HR) as high as that of distant metastasis (HR 2.8 vs HR 2.6, P = .006). A decreased DSS of ≤ 1 cm tumors was observed in HPV-negative T4 OPSCC, but not in HPV-positive T4 OPSCC (P < .001 vs P = .96). Conclusion: A tumor diameter ≤1 cm was associated with poor prognosis in patients with HPV-negative T4 OPSCC. Tumor diameter ≤1 cm could be a predictive factor for poor outcomes in HPV-negative T4 OPSCC.