Personalized oral cancer survival calculator to estimate risk of death from both oral cancer and other causes

Standard cancer prognosis models typically do not include much specificity in characterizing competing illnesses or general health status when providing prognosis estimates, limiting their utility for individuals. This is especially true for patients with oral cancer, who frequently had competing illnesses. A new personalized oral cancer survival calculator was developed to provide personalized estimates of a patient surviving or dying from cancer or other causes. The models in the calculator using health data of 22,392 US adults with confirmed oral cancer estimate that patients with oral cancer have a higher risk of death from other causes than a matched US population, and that this risk increases by stage. The authors conclude that survival estimates that exclude the effects of coexisting conditions can lead to under- or overestimates of survival.