Higher distant failure in young age tongue cancer patients

The objective of this study was to understand if the age of the patient at onset of tongue cancer was an adverse factor for patient survival and distant metastasis (DM). Data were collected from a retrospective database (January 1996-June 2003, n = 296). Local control rates, neck control rates, DM rates, and survival curves were assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method. Prognostic variables were assessed by the log-rank test and Cox proportional hazards regression method. For the young group (≤40 years, n = 76), a significantly higher 5-year DM rate (p = 0.014) was noted than the elderly group (>40 years, n = 220). No significant differences were seen in 5-year local and neck controls, disease-free, disease-specific and overall survivals between these two groups. We concluded that being ≤40 years of age at the onset of disease is a significant adverse factor for DM in tongue cancer.