Dynamic estimates of survival in oncocytic cell carcinoma of the thyroid

BACKGROUND: Little is known about death hazard and conditional survival of oncocytic cell carcinoma of the thyroid (OCC). METHODS: Patients diagnosed with OCC between 2004 to 2019 were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to estimate the actuarial disease-specific survival (DSS). The annual hazard rate of death was depicted employing the hazard function. Based on the life-table method, the conditional DSS was calculated. RESULTS: In terms of DSS rates, there were statistically significant differences among the different stages (P < 0.01). Annual hazard curves for mortality from OCC in the entire study participants demonstrated an overall decreasing tendency with two peaks at 3 and 10 years. In patients with distant disease, the death risk curve was the steepest and decreased quickly and evidently. Conditional DSS tended to increase over time in the entire study population. Patients with distant disease showed more significant alterations than those patients with local or regional disease. CONCLUSIONS: Prognosis improved over time in patients with OCC. The largest increase in conditional DSS was observed in patients with distant disease. Conditional survival may provide more relevant prognostic information than conventional survival estimates and allow personalized follow-up and counseling.