Epidemiological, clinical and oncological outcomes of young patients with laryngeal cancer: a systematic review

Objective: To investigate epidemiological, clinical and oncological outcomes of young patients with laryngeal cancer (LC). Methods: PubMed, Scopus and Cochrane Library were searched by three researchers for studies investigating epidemiological, clinical and oncological outcomes of patients with age < 40 years old and LC. The following outcomes were investigated with PRISMA criteria: age; ethnicity; gender; tobacco/alcohol habits; anatomical, pathological, therapeutic and survival features. Authors performed a bias analysis of papers and provided recommendations for future studies. Results: Seventeen papers published between 1982 and 2021 met our inclusion criteria, accounting for 928 patients with age < 40 years (female/male ratio: 2:5). There were on average 54.2 and 45.8% of smokers and drinkers. The tumor location mainly consisted of glottis (70.1%), supraglottis (27.7%) and subglottis (2.2%). Radiation therapy was the main therapeutic strategy used in young adults with LC. The 2-year overall survival ranged from 50 to 100% and depended on tumor stage, treatment, and cohort features. Four studies reported better overall survival in young compared with old adults, while there were no significant differences in three studies. There was an important heterogeneity between studies regarding the inclusion/exclusion criteria, epidemiological, clinical, pathological and treatment. Conclusion: It was suggested that young patients with LC had lower proportion of smokers and drinkers and better overall survival compared with older but both data of the current literature and heterogeneity between studies limit us to draw definitive conclusions.