Survival of Oral Cancer Patients in Different Ethnicities

Ghani WMN 1 , Ramanathan A 2 , Prime SS 3 , Yang YH 4 , Razak IA 5 , Abdul Rahman ZA 2 Show all authors , Abraham MT 6 , Mustafa WMW 5 , Tay KK 6 , Kallarakkal TG 2 , Doss JG 1 , Cheong SC 7 , Bustam AZ 8 , Zain RB 1

Affiliations 

  • 1 Faculty of Dentistry, Oral Cancer Research and Coordinating Centre (OCRCC), University of Malaya , Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Oro-Maxillofacial Surgical and Medical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya , Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
  • 3 Centre for Clinical and Diagnostic Oral Sciences, Institute of Dentistry, Barts and the London School of Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London , London , UK
  • 4 School of Pharmacy, Kaohsiung Medical University , Kaohsiung , Taiwan
  • 5 Faculty of Dentistry, MAHSA University , Bandar Saujana Putra , Malaysia
  • 6 Oral Health Division, Ministry of Health , Putrajaya , Malaysia
  • 7 Oral Cancer Research Team, Cancer Research Malaysia , Subang Jaya , Malaysia
  • 8 Clinical Oncology Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya , Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
Cancer Invest, 2019;37(7):275-287.
PMID: 31307249 DOI: 10.1080/07357907.2019.1635614

Abstract

Previous studies found that ethnicity influences oral cancer patients' survival; however, most studies were limited to certain ethnic groups particularly from the West, thus of limited relevance to Asians where the disease is most prevalent. We investigated the relationship between ethnicity and patient survival in multi-racial Malaysia. 5-year survival rate was 40.9%. No statistically significant difference was observed in survival between Malays, Chinese, Indians and Indigenous peoples (45.7%, 44.0%, 41.3%, 27.7% respectively). Increased tumor size, lymph node involvement and advanced tumor were predictive of poor survival. We conclude that ethnicity has no effect on survival or its prognostic indicators.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

MeSH terms
Similar publications