Survival comparison of different histological subtypes of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma: A propensity-matched score analysis based on SEER database

Abstract

Objective The purpose of this study was to analyze the difference of survival rates in paitents with oropharyngeal keratinizing squamous cell carcinoma (KSCC), nonkeratinizing squamous cell carcinoma (NKSCC), basaloid squamous cell carcinoma (BSCC), and papillary squamous cell carcinoma (PSCC). Materials and methods Patients diagnosed with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma between 2004 and 2015 were collected from the SEER database. Cox proportional hazards models and Kaplan–Meier curves were used for survival analysis. Propensity score matching (PSM) was performed to adjust for the effect of confounding variables. Due to the small sample size of PSCC, this study did not perform PSM between it and other subtypes. Results The 5-year cancer-specific survival (CSS) rate of PSCC was higher than that of KSCC, NKSCC, and BSCC (0.627 vs. 0.812 vs. 0.789 vs. 0.875, P < 0.05); And the CSS rate of KSCC was lower than that of other subtypes both before and after PSM. In addition, the 5-year and 10-year CSS rates of BSCC were not different from NKSCC ( P > 0.05), but not as good as NKSCC in the long term ( P = 0.028). After PSM, the 5-year, 10-year, and long-term prognosis of BSCC were significantly worse than those of NKSCC ( P < 0.001). Conclusion The 5-year CSS of PSCC was better than the other three subtypes. The short-term prognosis of BSCC was not significantly different from NKSCC, but the long-term survival was lower than that of NKSCC, and the difference was more obvious after PSM. Meanwhile, the prognosis of KSCC was worst.