Survival outcomes for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma arising after lymphoma.

Abstract

Determine onset and survival of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) after lymphoma. Case-control. Cases of HNSCC occurring as a second primary malignancy after prior diagnosis of lymphoma were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database. Survivals were compared with age- and stage-matched control cases of HNSCC. A total of 333 cases of HNSCC after lymphoma (53 Hodgkin's and 280 non-Hodgkin's lymphomas) were identified as occurring on average 70.7 months after lymphoma. Post-lymphoma HNSCC cases exhibited poorer mean (median) Kaplan-Meier overall survival of 57.0 months (29.0 months) vs 84.2 months (42.0 months) for controls (P = 0.008). However, after exclusion of lymphoma-related deaths, post-lymphoma HNSCC survival improved to 63.9 (86.3) months (P = 0.191). HNSCC occurring after Hodgkin's disease exhibited better mean survival (92.5 months) than extranodal non-Hodgkin's (43.5 months) and nodal non-Hodgkin's (50.7 months) disease (P = 0.049). Patients with HNSCC with prior lymphoma, especially non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, exhibit poorer survival than first primary HNSCC cases.