title: Does age affect prognosis in salivary gland carcinoma patients? A national Danish study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare incidence, histology, treatment modalities, disease stages, and outcome in elderly patients (≥70 years) compared to younger (<70 years).
  
  
  METHODS
  From the national Danish salivary gland carcinoma database, 871 patients diagnosed with a primary salivary gland carcinoma from January 1990 to December 2005 were identified. Variables necessary for statistical analyses were extracted from the database.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The younger patients have a significantly better crude, disease-specific and recurrence-free survival than the elderly ones. In univariate analysis, significantly more patients in the young group were WHO performance status 0 and in disease stage I + II, and they presented with significantly more histological low grade tumors. In multivariate analysis, chronological age seemed to be of no prognostic significance to salivary gland carcinoma patients as opposed to performance status, disease stage and histological grade.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Salivary gland carcinoma patients over the age of 70 years have a poor prognosis compared to younger patients, which can be explained by higher disease stages, more histological high grade subtypes and a poorer performance status at the time of diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: a Department of ENT-HNS , Odense University Hospital , Odense , Denmark ;
authors.forename: Kristine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bjørndal
authors.affiliation: b Department of Pathology , Odense University Hospital , Odense , Denmark ;
authors.forename: Stine R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.affiliation: c Department of Pathology , Rigshospitalet, University Hospital of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark ;
authors.forename: Marianne H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Therkildsen
authors.affiliation: d Department of Oncology , Rigshospitalet, University Hospital of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark ;
authors.forename: Claus A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Kristensen
authors.affiliation: e Department of ORL-HNS and Audiology , Rigshospitalet, University Hospital of Copenhagen , Copenhagen , Denmark ;
authors.forename: Birgitte
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Charabi
authors.affiliation: f Department of Oncology , Herlev Hospital , Herlev , Denmark ;
authors.forename: Elo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.affiliation: g Department of Experimental Clinical Oncology , Aarhus University Hospital , Aarhus , Denmark ;
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Overgaard
authors.affiliation: h Department of ENT-HNS , Aarhus University Hospital , Aarhus , Denmark ;
authors.forename: Sten
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schytte
authors.affiliation: i Department of ENT-HNS , Aalborg University Hospital , Aalborg , Denmark ;
authors.forename: Henrik B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.affiliation: j Department of Oncology , Aalborg University Hospital , Aalborg , Denmark ;
authors.forename: Lisbeth J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.affiliation: k Department of Oncology , Odense University Hospital , Odense , Denmark.
authors.forename: Jørgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Johansen
authors.affiliation: a Department of ENT-HNS , Odense University Hospital , Odense , Denmark ;
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Godballe
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D017567:Karnofsky Performance Status; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012042:Registries; D012468:Salivary Gland Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome