The influence of marital status on the survival of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma

Marital status is viewed as an independent prognostic factor for survival in various cancers. But, little is known about the relationship between marital status and Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) outcomes. To investigate the impact of marital status on the survival of patients with HL, we identified 37884 cases from 1988 to 2013 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. The Kaplan–Meier method and multivariate Cox regression model were used for analyzing the influence of marital status on cause-specific survival (CSS). We found patients in widowed group had a higher proportion of women and a higher incidence of older (>60 years) patients; all of these parameters were found to be statistically significant in within-group comparisons. Marital status was demonstrated to be an independent prognostic factor. Widowed individuals were at greater risk of cancer specific mortality relative to other groups. Similar associations in subgroup analyses were observed according to SEER stage. In conclusion, widowed patients suffered survival disadvantages relative to other groups, and marital status had significant prognostic value in HL.