Megwalu UC, et al. - Herein, the authors evaluated the oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma incidence and mortality trends in the United States, between 1973-2013. A rise was noted in the incidence rates increased in a nonlinear fashion. On the other hand, mortality rates declined. This, along with changes in trends by demographic and tumor factors, was indicative of the human papilloma virus serving as the primary driver of the recent rise in incidence.

Methods

• Data extraction was performed with regard to the incidence and mortality rates from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 9 Database.
• An estimation was conducted of the annual percentage change in rates through the Joinpoint regression analysis (National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD).

Results

• A rise was reported in the incidence rates (annual percent change [APC]; 1.52, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.17 to 2.88) from 1973 to 1983, remained stable (APC -0.52, 95% CI -1.30 to 0.26) from 1983 to 1997, and increased (APC 1.32, 95% CI 0.83 to 1.81) from 1997 to 2013.
• The increase in incidence rates was noted for males (APC 0.73, 95% CI 0.22 to 1.25) but not females (APC -0.77, 95% CI -0.68 to 0.82).
• It was displayed that the incidence rates increased in the white population (APC 0.79, 95% CI 0.33 to 1.25) but decreased in the black population (APC -0.72, 95% CI -1.41 to -0.02).
• The increase in incidence rates was discovered for tongue-base tumors (APC 1.17, 95% CI 0.42 to 1.92) and tonsil tumors (APC 0.47, 95% CI 1.10 to 4.96).
• However, other sites reported a decrease. From 1993 to 2013, the incidence-based mortality decreased (APC -0.78, 95% CI -1.13 to -0.42).