Adenoid cystic carcinoma in the news

I think my data might be included in this article, as I was diagnosed in 2006. If you were diagnosed ACC in your head/neck region while living in the USA between 1993 and 2007, and are still casting a shadow, you too could be included in the data. Ask for full-text through your local library (hopefully free or low cost), or you could pay for full-text at the Wiley site: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.27408/abstract:

1. Cancer. 2012 Jan 31. doi: 10.1002/cncr.27408. [Epub ahead of print]

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of the head and neck: Incidence and survival trends
based on 1973-2007 Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results data.

Ellington CL, Goodman M, Kono SA, Grist W, Wadsworth T, Chen AY, Owonikoko T,
Ramalingam S, Shin DM, Khuri FR, Beitler JJ, Saba NF.

Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.

BACKGROUND: Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of the head and neck (ACCHN) is a rare
tumor of minor salivary, parotid, and submandibular glands. The biologic behavior
of the disease is poorly understood, and nonsurgical treatment strategies have
yet to be standardized. The long-term prognosis continues to be guarded, with an 
estimated 10-year survival of <60%. Population-based studies examining ACC are
scarce. The authors aimed to analyze incidence rates and survival outcomes for
patients diagnosed with ACCHN using national population-based data. METHODS: Data
were obtained from the US National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology,
and End Results (SEER) program. Newly diagnosed ACCHN cases reported to SEER from
1973 through 2007 were categorized according to their sex, race, age, year of
diagnosis, marital status, treatment interventions, primary tumor site, and
disease stage. Incidence of ACCHN and postdiagnosis survival were examined over
time and compared across different demographic and disease-related categories.
RESULTS: The authors identified 3026 patients with ACCHN. The mean age at
diagnosis among those cases was 57.4 years (range, 11-99 years). Analyses of
incidence data demonstrated a decline in ACCHN rates between 1973 and 2007, noted
across all sexes and races with no detectable inflexion points. The overall
5-year, 10-year, and 15-year survival outcomes for ACCHN patients were 90.3%,
79.9%, and 69.2%, respectively. Females, patients with localized disease, and
younger patients were found to have significantly better survival across all time
periods (all comparison-specific log-rank P values <0.001). Multivariate analyses
revealed better prognosis among women compared with men (hazard ratio [HR], 0.73;
95% confidence interval [CI], 0.65-0.82), among married compared with unmarried
individuals (HR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.71-0.91), with certain sites of origin and stage
of disease (HR, 2.788; 95% CI, 2.36-3.29), and in those who had surgery of the
primary tumor site (HR, 0.45; 95% CI, 0.37-0.54). CONCLUSIONS: The overall
incidence of ACC is declining. The noted differences in survival based on sex,
marital status, site of origin, and treatment intervention require further
investigation. Cancer 2012. © 2012 American Cancer Society.

Copyright © 2012 American Cancer Society.

PMID: 22294420  [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]