Dr. Katzel on Women Being Undertreated for Head and Neck Cancer

Jed A. Katzel, MD, Hematology, Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center, discusses research presented at the 2018 ASCO Annual Meeting, which evaluated whether women are undertreated for head and neck cancer.

Using a generalized competing events (GCE) model to evaluate patients who are more likely to benefit from aggressive therapy, a study done in Northern California found that women are more likely than men to die from head and neck cancer compared with other causes. Among the cohort of 884 diagnosed patients, 271 patients died of cancer and 93 of non-cancer causes at a median follow-up of 2.9 years. Katzel says that compared with men, women were less likely to receive intensive chemotherapy (35% vs 46%; P = .006) and radiation (60% vs 70%; P = .008).

The GCE model provides the ratio of cancer death over non-cancer death. If the ratio is >1, that indicates the patient’s risk of dying from cancer is greater than the risk of dying from other serious medical problems.