Suicide Risk Is Significant Among Survivors of Head, Neck Cancers

Recent research has indicated that suicide risk is significantly higher among survivors of head and neck cancers compared with all other cancers except pancreatic cancer, suggesting that this patient population should be considered for lifelong psychosocial monitoring.

Survivors of head and neck cancers are known to face unique quality-of-life issues compared with survivors of other cancers, likely contributing to these observations.

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These findings arose from a study of 4,613,123 US cancer survivors. Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, PhD, BDS, MPH, CHES, of the Saint Louis University Cancer Center in Missouri, and colleagues examined 2000-2014 data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results 18 database, estimating mortality rates from suicide for the 21 most common cancers in the United States.

Sex (when applicable), race, marital status, age, year, and stage of diagnosis were all taken into account. 

Of the 4769 suicides that occurred among 4,613,123 cancer survivors over the course of the study period (23.6 suicides per 100,000 person-years), all other cancers were found to have a 45% lower suicide ration compared to head and neck cancers among both men and women (mortality rate ratio [MRR]: 0.55 for both).

The mortality rate due to suicide for head and neck cancers was surpassed only by that of pancreatic cancer (63.4 vs 86.4 suicides per 100,000 person-years).

However, the researchers noted that only male survivors of pancreatic cancer had a significantly higher suicide MRR compared with head and neck cancer survivors (MRR 1.54). Among women, all other cancer sites demonstrated either significantly or insignificantly lower suicide MRRs compared with head and neck cancer survivors.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Osazuwa-Peters N, Simpson MC, Zhao L, Boakye EA, Olomukoro SI, Varvares MA. Suicide risk among cancer survivors: Head and neck versus other cancers. J Clin Oncol. 2018;36(suppl. 7):146. doi:10.1200/JCO.2018.36.7_suppl.146.