title: Primary surgery versus chemoradiotherapy for advanced oropharyngeal cancers: a longitudinal population study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Treatment for advanced stage oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) includes combined chemoradiation therapy or surgery followed by radiation therapy alone or in combination with chemotherapy. The goal of this study was to utilize available evidence to examine survival outcome differences in patients with advanced stage OPSCC treated with these different modalities.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with advanced stage OPSCC were identified. Primary outcome measurements were disease specific and overall survival rates with differences examined via Kaplan-Meier and logistic regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  344 patients were enrolled. 94 patients underwent triple modality therapy inclusive of surgery followed by adjuvant combined chemotherapy and radiation therapy (S-CRT). 131 had surgery and radiation therapy (S-RT), while 56 had chemoradiation (CRT) therapy as their primary treatment. A total of 63 patients had single modality radiation therapy and were excluded from analysis due to the large number of palliative patients. Kaplan-Meier overall survival analysis showed that therapy with S-CRT had the highest disease specific survival at five years (71.1%). This is contrasted against S-RT and CRT, with five year survival rates at 53.9%, and 48.6%, respectively. Cox regression showed that the comparison of S-CRT vs. S-RT, and CRT is associated with statistically significant increased hazard ratios of 1.974, and 2.785, indicating that both S-RT and CRT are associated with a reduced likelihood of survival at 5 years when compared to S-CRT.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this population based cohort study S-CRT is associated with a 17-22% 5 year disease specific survival benefit compared to CRT or S-RT.
authors.affiliation: Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: O'Connell
authors.affiliation: Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Hadi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Seikaly
authors.affiliation: Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Russell
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Knox
authors.affiliation: Division of Radiation Oncology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Rufus
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Scrimger
authors.affiliation: Division of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada ; 1E4.29 Walter C. MacKenzie Health Sciences Centre, 8440 112 Street, Edmonton, AB T6G 1B7, Canada.
authors.forename: Jeffrey R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Harris
mesh_terms: D002423:Cause of Death; D059248:Chemoradiotherapy / Q000379:methods* / Q000401:mortality; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009959:Oropharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D009960:Oropharynx / Q000601:surgery*; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D016019:Survival Analysis