Objective: This study aimed to compare the prognostic impact of comorbidity grading by the Adult Comorbidity Evaluation 27 index and the Charlson Comorbidity Index on the five-year overall and disease-specific survival in patients undergoing surgery for laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.
Methods: The impact of comorbidity and other factors on survival was examined retrospectively in a group of 177 patients with previously untreated tumour stage one to four laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma surgically treated at the Clinic of Otorhinolaryngology and Maxillofacial Surgery, Clinical Centre of Serbia, between 2000 and 2003. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to identify independent prognostic factors.
Results: On univariate analysis, comorbidity had an impact on prognosis regardless of which index was used. On multivariate analysis, the significant predictors of patients' five-year overall and disease-specific survival were tumour-node-metastasis stage and comorbidity as graded by the Adult Comorbidity Evaluation 27 index.
Conclusion: The Adult Comorbidity Evaluation 27 index is a more reliable predictor of survival than the Charlson Comorbidity Index in patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma.