Prognostic factors of survival in a cohort of head and neck cancer patients in Oslo

A cohort of 433 Oslo patients with head and neck (H/N) carcinomas was analysed for prognostic factors of survival. Mean observation time was 635 days, the distribution of men and women was 2:1 and the mean age was 64.5 years. Tumour localisations were: oral cavity 32.1%, oro/hypopharynx 19.3%, larynx 22.6% and others 25.2%. Stage distribution was: stage I: 21.0%, stage II: 22.6%, stage III: 18.7% and stage IV: 37.4%. Pragmatic strategy showed independent prognostic factors of survival to be gender, age, tumour localisation and stage. A model of predicting 3 year survival was generated. An explanatory approach showed that female patients had a 38% lower risk of mortality compared to male patients after controlling for age, stage and tumour localisation. Comparing observed to expected mortality of the age and gender matched Norwegian population, showed excess risk of death among male compared to female patients when also adjusted for demographic confounders.