An evaluation of treatment strategies for head and neck cancer in an African American population.
OBJECTIVE
This study evaluated treatment strategies for head and neck cancers in a predominantly African American population.


METHODS
Data were collected utilizing medical records and the tumour registry at the Howard University Hospital. Kaplan-Meier method was used for survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards regression analysis predicted the hazard of death.


RESULTS
Analysis revealed that the main treatment strategy was radiation combined with platinum for all stages except stage I. Cetuximab was employed in only 1% of cases. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed stage II patients had poorer outcome than stage IV while Cox proportional hazard regression analysis (p = 0.4662) showed that stage I had a significantly lower hazard of death than stage IV (HR = 0.314; p = 0.0272). Contributory factors included tobacco and alcohol but body mass index (BMI) was inversely related to hazard of death.


CONCLUSIONS
There was no difference in survival using any treatment modality for African Americans.
College of Pharmacy, Howard University, 2300 4th Street NW, Washington, DC, 20059 USA; School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. diane.ignacio@sta.uwi.edu.
D N
DN
Ignacio
College of Dentistry, Howard University, 2300 4th Street NW, Washington, DC, 20059 USA.
J J
JJ
Griffin
College of Pharmacy, Howard University, 2300 4th Street NW, Washington, DC, 20059 USA.
M G
MG
Daniel
College of Pharmacy, Howard University, 2300 4th Street NW, Washington, DC, 20059 USA.
M T
MT
Serlemitsos-Day
College of Pharmacy, Howard University, 2300 4th Street NW, Washington, DC, 20059 USA.
F A
FA
Lombardo
Biochemistry Unit, Faculty of Medical Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
T A
TA
Alleyne
D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007822:Laryngeal Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010610:Pharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000628:therapy; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D000077195:Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck