Survival Analysis of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients Attending Tertiary Care Centre of North India.

ABSTRACT

The cumulative survival for all stages in oral squamous cell cancers (OSCC) in the world remains poor despite the advances in management; hence, we conducted this study to evaluate the survival outcomes. This is a retrospective review and analysis of treatment, follow-up and survival records of 249 OSCC patients treated in our department from April 2010 to April 2014. Telephonic interviews were conducted for survival details for some patients who had not reported. Survival analysis was done using the Kaplan-Meier analysis, comparisons were done using log-rank test and multivariate analysis was conducted using the Cox proportional hazard model to find different variables (site, age, sex, stage and treatment) affecting overall survival (OS)/disease-free survival (DFS). Two-year and 5-year DFS for OSCC were observed to be 72.3% and 58.3% with mean survival of 63.17 months (95% CI 58.342-68.002). Similarly, OS at 2 years and 5 years were 84.3% and 55.9% with mean survival of 65.143 months (95% CI 60.143-69.601). Tumour site, patient age, stage of disease and treatment modality had a statistically significant hazardous effect on the overall and disease-free survival rates. The significant influence of age, site of tumour, stage of disease and modality of treatment required based on the clinic-pathologic risk factors on prognosis emphasizes the importance of early diagnosis through regular screening and early treatment which can be ensured with early referral, high clinical suspicion and awareness at the point of primary/secondary care.