Supportive care in cancer: Impact of marital status on outcome of end-stage head and neck cancer.
18 Background: The impact of marital status on cancer survival, including head and neck cancer (HNC), has been previously described. However, no previous study has shown whether being married impacts head and neck cancer patients with end-stage disease. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of marital status on survival of patients with stage IVc HNC. Methods: Patients ≥18 years from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database diagnosed with end-stage (AJCC stage IVc) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma from 2007-2015 ( n=2,886) were included. Kaplan-Meier survival estimated crude survival differences stratified by marital status (married/partnered, never married, divorced/separated, widowed) using log-rank test, and in-between differences were determined using Bonferroni adjustments. Competing risks proportional hazards model determined the effect of marital status on death from HNC while controlling for covariates (age, year of diagnosis, county-level poverty percentage, sex, race/ethnicity, insurance, anatomic subsite, and treatment modality). Results: Patients were predominantly male (81%) and white (65%), with mean age of 62 years. Median overall survival for the cohort was 11 months. The Kaplan-Meier curves indicated at the end of follow-up that divorced/separated (HNSCC-specific survival percentage=13%), never married (8%), and widowed patients (12%) had significantly lower survival than married/partnered patients (20%) (Bonferroni p<0.01). After adjusting for covariates, the proportional hazards model indicated that divorced/separated (aHR=1.16, 95% CI 1.01, 1.33), never married (aHR=1.20, 95% CI 1.07, 1.36), and widowed patients (aHR=1.23, 95% CI 1.02, 1.48) were significantly more likely to die from HNSCC than married/partnered patients. Conclusions: Married patients with HNC enjoy better survival outcomes than those unmarried, and those widowed and divorced have worse outcomes. This study illustrates that supportive care, in the form of being married, impacts patients, including those with end-stage disease.