Pediatric nasopharyngeal CA has different patient demographic

(HealthDay)—Pediatric patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) are more often black and present with stage IV disease, but they have lower mortality than adult patients, according to a study published online Jan. 14 in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

Morgan K. Richards, M.D., M.P.H., from the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study involving all 17,317 patients with a primary diagnosis of NCP in the National Cancer Data Base from 1998 through 2011 (699 pediatric [age, ≤21 years] patients and 16,618 adults).

The researchers found that pediatric patients were most frequently black (43.6 percent), while adult patients were most often non-Hispanic white (60.0 percent; P < 0.001). Pediatric patients were less likely than adults to be Asian (5.7 versus 19.7 percent; P < 0.001). Compared with adult patients, pediatric patients were more likely to have regional nodal evaluation (35.3 versus 24.0 percent; P < 0.001) and to present with stage IV disease (58.4 versus 47.8 percent; P < 0.001). The mortality risk was lower for pediatric patients (hazard ratio, 0.37; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.25 to 0.56), with no difference in mortality by racial group among pediatric patients (hazard ratio, 1.10; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.82 to 1.40).

"Although uncommon, pediatric NPC appears to affect a different patient demographic relative to adult NPC," the authors write.