Primary temporal bone squamous cell carcinoma: Comparing the prognostic value of the American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM classification (8th edition) with the revised Pittsburgh staging system

Head Neck. 2022 Apr;44(4):889-896. doi: 10.1002/hed.26980. Epub 2022 Jan 19.

Abstract

Background: Retrospectively considering a temporal bone squamous cell carcinomas (TBSCCs) series, our aim was to compare the predictive power of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system (8th edition) with the revised Pittsburgh staging system (rPSS) in terms of disease-free survival (DFS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and overall survival (OS).

Methods: Forty-three TBSCCs consecutively treated surgically were reviewed. The prognostic performance of AJCC and rPSS was compared.

Results: The areas under the curves for the prediction of DFS, DSS, and OS did not differ significantly between both staging systems (p = 0.518, p = 0.940, and p = 0.910, respectively). Harrel's C-indexes for respectively the AJCC and rPSS were 0.76 and 0.70 for DFS, 0.73 and 0.76 for DSS, 0.66 and 0.63 for OS.

Conclusion: Comparable prognostic accuracy was observed between AJCC and rPSS. Levels of prognostic performance were only acceptable for both systems, according to Hosmer-Lemeshow scale. Further efforts are needed to define new TBSCC staging modalities with higher prognostic reliability.

Keywords: AJCC TNM 8th edition; prognosis; revised Pittsburgh staging system; squamous cell carcinoma; temporal bone.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* / pathology
  • Carcinoma, Squamous Cell* / surgery
  • Humans
  • Neoplasm Staging
  • Prognosis
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Temporal Bone / pathology
  • United States