Objective: The objective of the study was to describe the age distribution and to evaluate the role of prognostic value of age on survival in patients diagnosed with olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB). A population-based retrospective analysis was conducted.
Materials and methods: The population-based study of patients in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) tumor registry, who were diagnosed with ONB from 1973 to 2014, were retrospectively analyzed.
Results: The cohort included 876 patients with a median age of 54 years. There was a unimodal distribution of age and ONBs most frequently occurred in the fifth to sixth decades of life. Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates of 69% and 78% at 5 years. Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that age, SEER stage, and surgery were independent prognostic factors for CSS. The risk of overall death and cancer-specific death increased 3.1% and 1.6% per year, respectively. Patients aged >60 years presented significantly poor OS and CSS compared with patients aged ≤60 years, even in patients with loco-regional disease or in those treated with surgery.
Conclusion: This study highlights the growing evidence that there is a unimodal age distribution of ONB and that age is an important adverse prognostic factor.
Keywords: age distribution; esthesioneuroblastoma; olfactory neuroblastoma; prognosis.