ArticlePloS one2025
Comparative effectiveness of surgery versus radiotherapy for non-nasopharyngeal head and neck lymphoepithelial carcinoma: An IPTW propensity score analysis.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundLymphoepithelial carcinoma (LEC) is a rare head and neck malignancy predominately treated with radiotherapy or surgery. However, comparative effectiveness studies, are lacking for non-nasopharyngeal head and neck LEC (HNLEC).
methodsPatients diagnosed with non-nasopharyngeal HNLEC from 2000-2019 were extracted from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) was used to balance baseline characteristics. Cancer-specific survival (CSS) was compared between surgery and radiotherapy groups using Kaplan-Meier analyses and Cox regression before and after IPTW adjustment.
results248 patients were included. Before IPTW adjustment, treatment modalities were not significantly associated with CSS in both Kaplan-Meier analysis(p=0.065) and univariate Cox regression(p=0.068). After weighting, Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed a significant CSS difference favoring surgery (p=0.015), and univariate Cox regression showed surgery (p=0.018), race (p<0.001), tumor size (p=0.024) and radiotherapy (p=0.0003) as independent predictors. On subgroup analysis of patients receiving single-modality therapy, landmark analysis beyond 60 months showed improved CSS with surgery versus radiotherapy (p<0.001) after IPTW adjustment. Additionally, Kaplan-Meier analysis showed no pre-IPTW (p=0.68) or post-IPTW (p=0.30) CSS differences between surgery alone and surgery plus radiotherapy.
conclusionThis population-based analysis demonstrated a potential survival advantage of surgery over radiotherapy for non-nasopharyngeal head and neck LEC after accounting for confounding factors. Additional comparative effectiveness data, ideally from controlled studies, are warranted to further investigate optimal treatment strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.