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Review
. 2022 Nov 26;14(23):5830.
doi: 10.3390/cancers14235830.

Sex Disparity for Patients with Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck: A Systematic Review

Brandon Tan  1 , Ishith Seth  2   3 , Olivia Fischer  1 , Lyndel Hewitt  1   3   4 , Geoffrey Melville  1   4 , Gabriella Bulloch  2 , Bruce Ashford  1   3   4   5
Affiliations
Review

Sex Disparity for Patients with Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck: A Systematic Review

Brandon Tan et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

The incidence of head and neck cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (HNcSCC) is unevenly distributed between men and women. At present, the mechanism behind this disparity remains elusive. This study conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of proportions to investigate the disparity between sexes for patients with HNcSCC. PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Emcare and CINAHL were searched in November 2021 and June 2022 (N > 50, English, human), and studies which examined the association between sex and HNcSCC were included. Analysis was conducted using RStudio with data and forest plots displaying males as a proportion of total patients with HNcSCC. Two independent researchers performed study selection, data extraction, data analysis and risk of bias. Eighty-two studies (1948 to 2018) comprising approximately 186,000 participants (67% male, 33% female) from 29 countries were included. Significantly more males had HNcSCC overall (71%; CI: 67−74). Males were also significantly more affected by cSCC of the ear (92%; CI: 89−94), lip (74%; CI: 66−81), and eyelid (56%; CI: 51−62). This study found HNcSCC disproportionately affected males overall and across all subtypes. Improving our understanding of sex-specific mechanisms in HNcSCC will better inform our preventive, therapeutic and prognostic practices.

Keywords: cutaneous; head & neck; squamous cell carcinoma; surgery.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA flow diagram of the literature search.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Proportion of males with cSCC of the total head and neck region [17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64,65,66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73,74,75,76].
Figure 3
Figure 3
Proportion of males with cSCC of the ear [21,23,29,31,32,35,38,39,43,45,58,65,75].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Proportion of males with cSCC of lips [17,21,23,35,38,45,48,49,51,54,62,70].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Proportion of males with cSCC of the eyelid [17,21,26,29,30,31,32,38,39,45,63,66].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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