Comparing Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer Rates in Rural and Urban Areas

Abstract

Background: Risk factors for oral and pharyngeal cancers include tobacco use, alcohol use, poor diet, HPV infection, poor oral care, low socio-economic status, gender and genetics, and age. This analysis aims to discover whether or not differences exist in incidence and survival rates in oral and pharyngeal cancer patients in rural and urban areas. Methods: Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data from 17 registries for the years 2000-2005 was used for this analysis. A Poisson regression and Survival analysis were performed. Results: Rural or urban residency was not significant in either analysis. Race, gender, and age were all significant at the 0.05 level. Conclusions: The dataset for this analysis was limited to variables in the SEER data and population data sets. Known risk factors could not be accounted for in this analysis, which could have had an impact on the results, especially in rural and urban differences.