Non-smoking, non-drinking elderly females, a 5 year follow-up of a clinically distinct cohort of oral squamous cell carcinoma patients

Of the study population (N = 287), 24.4% were NSND and 9.75% were NSND elderly (older than 70 years) females. >50% of tumours arose from the oral tongue in NSND patients (p = 0.022) and there was a higher rate of recurrent and persistent disease (42.9% vs 27.6%, p = 0.005). Disease specific survival at 5 years was significantly reduced when NSND elderly females were compared to all other patients (p < 0.001) as well as age matched controls (p = 0.006). This effect was verified independently in each cohort.