Purpose: It is well demonstrated that being married is associated with a better prognosis in multiple types of cancer. However, whether the protective effect of marital status varied across race/ethnicity and gender in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the roles of race/ethnicity and gender in this relationship.
Patients and methods: We identified eligible patients from Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database during 2004-2012. Overall and cancer-specific survival differences across marital status were compared by Kaplan-Meier curves. We also estimated crude hazard ratios (CHRs) and adjusted hazard ratios (AHRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for marital status associated with survival by race/ethnicity and gender in Cox proportional hazard models.
Results: A total of 12,168 eligible patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma were included. We observed that married status was an independent protective prognostic factor for overall and cancer-specific survival. In stratified analyses by race/ethnicity, the AHR of overall mortality (unmarried vs married) was highest for Hispanic (AHR =1.25, 95% CI, 1.13-1.39; P<0.001) and lowest for Asian or Pacific Islander (AHR =1.13; 95% CI, 1.00-1.28; P=0.042). Stratified by gender, the AHR was higher in males (AHR =1.27; 95% CI, 1.20-1.33; P<0.001). Conclusion: We demonstrated that married patients obtained better survival advantages. Race/ethnicity and gender could influence the magnitude of associations between marital status and risk of mortality.
Keywords: SEER; being married; gender; primary hepatocellular carcinoma; prognosis; race.