Seasonality of head and neck cancers

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate if the season of diagnosis is associated with patient, tumor, and treatment characteristics within head and neck cancer.

Materials and methods: 1406 patients with a diagnosis of head and neck cancer (HNC) were identified from a HNC database (1996-2019). Patients were classified as receiving a diagnosis in the winter, spring, summer, or fall by calendar definition. Proportions and chi-squared analysis compared patient, tumor, and treatment factors for all diagnoses. Data was subdivided and analyzed based on the primary site.

Results: From this cohort, 23 %, 27 %, 25 %, and 25 % of HNC patients were diagnosed in winter, spring, summer, and fall respectively with no statistically significant difference between seasons of diagnosis. When subdivided by primary site, oral cavity cancer was significantly more likely to be diagnosed in spring, salivary gland cancer was more likely to be diagnosed in winter and summer (p = 0.03 and p = 0.01 respectively). No other demographic, clinicopathologic, or management characteristics were associated with the season of diagnosis (p > 0.05 for all).

Conclusions: Diagnosis of head and neck cancer does not follow a seasonal pattern. Diagnosis of oral cavity and salivary gland cancer showed a seasonal pattern. The majority of patient, tumor and management characteristics were not associated with the.

Keywords: Head and neck cancer; Oral cavity cancer; Salivary gland cancer; Season.