Osazuwa-Peters N, et al. - The link between patient smoking status at head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) diagnosis and survival and the connection between marital status and smoking in these patients were comprehensively analyzed, in this study. During the study period, smokers exhibited almost twice the likelihood as nonsmokers, of dying. Those who were married displayed a lesser tendency to be smokers at diagnosis. Hence, individualized cancer care ought to incorporate the social support and management of cancer risk behaviors.

Methods

• A search was performed of the Saint Louis University Hospital Tumor Registry for adults with a diagnosis of HNSCC and treated at the university academic medical center between 1997 and 2012.
• An assessment was conducted of 463 confirmed cases.
• The main outcome measure included the examination of the association of survival with smoking status at diagnosis and covariates via Cox proportional hazards regression analysis.
• A multivariate logistic regression model assisted in determining if the marital status correlated with smoking at diagnosis adjusting for covariates.

Results

• Among the 463 total patients (338 men, 125 women), 92 (19.9%) were aged 18 to 49 years; 233 (50.3%) were aged 50 to 65 years; and 138 (29.8%) were older than 65 years.
• Herein, 56.2% of patients were smokers at diagnosis (n = 260); 49.6% were married (n = 228); and the mortality rate was 54.9% (254 died).
• Maximum patients were white (81.0%; n = 375).
• Smokers at diagnosis exhibited a greater tendency of being younger (ie, <65 years), unmarried, and to drink alcohol.
• A statistically prominent variation was disclosed in the median survival time between smokers (89 months; 95% CI, 65-123 months) and nonsmokers at diagnosis (208 months; 95% CI, 129-235 months).
• Patients who were smokers at diagnosis were almost twice as likely to die during the study period as nonsmokers (hazard ratio, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.42-2.77), in the adjusted Cox proportional hazards model.
• The multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that unmarried patients illustrated 76% more likelihood of using tobacco than married patients (adjusted odds ratio, 1.76; 95% CI, 1.08-2.84).