ArticleEuropean archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery2026
Peritonsillar abscess as a clinical sign of oropharyngeal cancer - a Swedish national cohort study.
Article in European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, 2026. 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
purposePatients older than 40 years with peritonsillar abscess may routinely undergo follow-up to detect oropharyngeal cancer, but this approach lacks scientific evidence. This study aimed to assess the hypothesis that oropharyngeal cancer is not overrepresented in patients with peritonsillar abscess.
methodsThis population-based, nationwide Swedish cohort study compared all patients diagnosed with peritonsillar abscess during 2005-2023 with an age-, date-, and sex-matched non-exposed group from the same cohort. Conditional logistic regression provided odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for oropharyngeal cancer within 1 year after peritonsillar abscess diagnosis, or matching date. Except for the three matching variables, the OR were adjusted for tobacco smoking, alcohol overconsumption, and comorbidity in a multivariable model.
resultsOropharyngeal cancer was diagnosed in 30 patients out of 64,244 occurrences of peritonsillar abscess (0.05%), compared to 9 out of 642,440 individuals in the comparison group (0.0014%). All 39 oropharyngeal cancers occurred in individuals aged 40 or older. Peritonsillar abscess was associated with an increased 1-year risk of oropharyngeal cancer (adjusted OR 3.51, 95% CI 2.75-4.26). In substrata of age, the strongest association was observed for patients aged 60 years and above (adjusted OR 4.54, 95% CI 3.07-6.02), corresponding to 2.8 cases per 1000 patients, while the age group 40-59 years had an OR of 2.76 (95% CI 1.80-3.72).
conclusionPeritonsillar abscess may indicate an underlying oropharyngeal cancer only in rare cases. Given the low incidence of oropharyngeal cancer after peritonsillar abscess, routine follow-up is questionable or may be limited to older patients.
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.