Marriage and Head and Neck Cancer

Marriage and Head and Neck Cancer

Can marital status have positive effects on the treatment of patients with head and neck cancer?
The answer is yes. Recent studies have shown that having a spouse can be effective in treating these patients. In a cohort study of 5,272 patients with head and neck cancer, married patients received more definitive treatments and had a lower risk of dying. They also found that among patients with head and neck cancer, those who were married were less likely to develop metastatic disease.[1]
Another study on 9,403 aged patients with head and neck cancers showed that marriage leads to early diagnosis, more aggressive treatment, and higher survival rates. [2]
To justify these results, we introduce two main reasons:
First, marriage provides social support for the spouse. A spouse encourages his or her partner to receive screening, leading to the early detection of disease. Also, the emotional support and special care of the spouse raise the patient's spirit and influence the treatment outcome. The spouse also encourages his partner to receive definitive treatments.
The second explanation for the benefits we have observed is a marriage selection hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, healthier people are more likely to get married and stay married. People who are married care more about their health, so they may be more likely to seek out healthy behaviors, such as early screening for the disease.
Similar results have been shown for other cancers. Marriage was associated with increased relief in central nervous system malignancies, colon and breast cancer. Married people have also been more successful in treating colon, ovarian, pancreatic and bladder cancer.[3]–[6]
As a result,  having an excellent supporter during your life gives you both mental and physical calmness, thus being in a good relationship with a partner can be effective in treating head and neck cancer.

By: Fatemeh Moghimi

 References: 

[1] G. Inverso, B. A. Mahal, A. A. Aizer, R. B. Donoff, N. G. Chau, and R. I. Haddad, “Marital status and head and neck cancer outcomes,” Cancer, vol. 121, no. 8, pp. 1273–1278, 2015, doi: 10.1002/cncr.29171.
[2] E. Leoncini et al., “Adult height and head and neck cancer: A pooled analysis within the INHANCE Consortium,” Head Neck, vol. 36, no. 10, p. 1391, 2014, doi: 10.1002/HED.
[3] J. D. Sammon et al., “Marital status: A gender-independent risk factor for poorer survival after radical cystectomy,” BJU Int., vol. 110, no. 9, pp. 1301–1309, 2012, doi: 10.1111/j.1464-410X.2012.10993.x.
[4] H. Mahdi, S. Kumar, A. R. Munkarah, M. Abdalamir, M. Doherty, and R. Swensen, “Prognostic impact of marital status on survival of women with epithelial ovarian cancer,” Psychooncology., vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 83–88, 2013, doi: 10.1002/pon.2058.
[5] M. Baine, F. Sahak, C. Lin, S. Chakraborty, E. Lyden, and S. K. Batra, “Marital status and survival in pancreatic cancer patients: A SEER based analysis,” PLoS One, vol. 6, no. 6, 2011, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0021052.
[6] J. L. Nelles, S. A. Joseph, and B. R. Konety, “The impact of marriage on bladder cancer mortality,” Urol. Oncol. Semin. Orig. Investig., vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 263–267, 2009, doi: 10.1016/j.urolonc.2008.04.016.