Is Sex an Independent Prognostic Factor in Esthesioneuroblastoma?

OBJECTIVE: To determine if sex independently affects presentation and disease-specific survival (DSS) in patients with esthesioneuroblastoma (ENB). STUDY DESIGN: A case-control study from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data base. METHODS: The assessment identified 611 patients in the SEER data base who were diagnosed with ENB from 1988 to 2010. Data on race, ethnicity, age at diagnosis, sex, histologic grade, radiation treatment status, and surgical treatment status of patients with ENB from 1988 to 2010 were extracted. By using tumor extension data, the modified Kadish stage of each case was determined. The modified Kadish system was able to successfully classify 547 of 611 tumors from 1988 to 2010. Histologic grade, modified Kadish stage and DSS of male patients was compared with the DSS of female patients. RESULTS: Demographic data showed that male patients presented with a significantly higher grade (p < 0.05) and a trend toward a higher stage (p = 0.08). With unmatched data, male patients had significantly worse DSS than female patients (p < 0.05). After case-matching, the difference between the DSS for male versus female patients was no longer significant. CONCLUSIONS: Male patients with ENB seemed to have significantly worse DSS at 10 years than female patients. This disparity seems to be due to higher grade and stage in male patients at presentation. After accounting for these two factors, the prognosis of male patients was not found to be significantly different from that of female patients.