title: Salvage surgery following radiation failure for laryngeal cancer in elderly patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To find the survival rate of patients ≥ 80 years old who undergo salvage surgery for squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx.
  
  
  METHODS
  National data registry analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventeen population-based registries comprising the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database.
  
  
  METHODS
  Overall, cancer-specific, and relative survival rates were calculated from 1418 patients, stratified into 3 age cohorts, who underwent surgery following radiation therapy for treatment of laryngeal cancer.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 1-year overall survival of patients ≥ 80 years old (n = 57) was 76.1%. The cancer-specific survival at 1 year was 86.4%. These survival rates were significantly less than those of patients <65 years old (n = 869), who had a 1-year overall survival of 88.1% (P = .006) and cancer-specific survival of 90.5% (P = .029). Patients aged between 65 and 79 years old (n = 492) displayed 1-year overall survival of 80.7% (P = .426) and cancer-specific survival of 85.1% (P = .711), which were not significantly different from the ≥ 80 year cohort. When comparing relative survival at 5 years, the ≥ 80-year-old cohort's survival trended the highest (≥ 80 years, 62.8%; 65-79 years, 51.3%; 20-64 years, 56.2%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While patients ≥ 80 years old have a less favorable prognosis than patients <65 years old, the survival rates of patients ≥ 80 years old are not significantly different from the 65- to 79-year-old cohort. After controlling for non-cancer-related death, patients ≥ 80 years old appear to have similar 5-year survival outcomes compared with other patients.
authors.affiliation: Saint Louis University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri 35294-0012, USA.
authors.forename: Jonathan J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Lusardi
authors.forename: Paula M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Buchanan
authors.forename: Kara M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Christopher
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Varvares
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D016879:Salvage Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D017211:Treatment Failure