Secondary primary malignancy in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: 27-year experience from the perspective of diagnostic tools

Shih-Wei Wang; Leong-Perng Chan; Ling-Feng Wang; Che-Wei Wu; Sheng-Hsuan Lin; Tzu-Yen Huang; Ka-Wo Lee

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0263773

Secondary primary malignancy in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: 27-year experience from the perspective of diagnostic tools

PLoS One. 2022 Feb 15;17(2):e0263773. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263773. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Shih-Wei Wang¹, Leong-Perng Chan^{1

2

3}, Ling-Feng Wang^{1

2}, Che-Wei Wu^{1

2

4}, Sheng-Hsuan Lin⁵, Tzu-Yen Huang^{1

2

6}, Ka-Wo Lee^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
² Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, College of Medicine, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
³ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kaohsiung Municipal Tatung Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
⁵ Institute of Data Science and Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Biological Science and Technology, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Abstract

Background: The survival rate of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients with secondary primary malignancy (SPM) showed no significant improvement for decades, however, the impact of advances in diagnostic tools is rarely mentioned. This study investigated the clinical characteristic of HNSCC with SPM over a 27-year period especially from the perspective of diagnostic tools.

Methods: This study evaluated 157 HNSCC patients with SPM. The patients were divided into two groups according to the time of SPM diagnosis (Group A:1992-2003; Group B: 2004-2014). Age, gender, stage of first primary malignancy (FPM), SPM interval, overall survival, and disease-free survival were compared between groups.

Results: Group B had significantly more SPM developed rate (p = 0.002), more SPM patients with advanced stage of FPM (p = 0.001), synchronous SPM (p = 0.006), and shorter SPM interval (p<0.001) compared to Group A. The survival rate in Group B was not significantly better than Group A.

Conclusion: Among patients diagnosed with HNSCC recently, more SPMs are diagnosed in a shorter time interval and in a more advanced stage. The overall advances in diagnostic tools cannot significantly improve SPM survival, however, it enables more patients to receive corresponding treatment.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Early Detection of Cancer / trends*
Female
Head and Neck Neoplasms / diagnosis*
Head and Neck Neoplasms / mortality
Head and Neck Neoplasms / pathology
Humans
Kaplan-Meier Estimate
Male
Middle Aged
Neoplasm Staging
Neoplasms, Second Primary / diagnosis*
Neoplasms, Second Primary / mortality
Neoplasms, Second Primary / pathology
Retrospective Studies
Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck / diagnosis*
Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck / mortality
Squamous Cell Carcinoma of Head and Neck / pathology
Survival Analysis

Grants and funding

This study was supported by grants from Kaohsiung Medical University Hospital, (KMUH108-8M48, KMUH109-9M44, KMUH109-9M45), Kaohsiung Municipal Hsiao-Kang Hospital (Kmhk-DK109004), Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan, and MOST 110-2314-B-037-120, funder as MD Tzu-Yen Huang, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan.