Role of local therapy in the management of patients with metastatic anal squamous cell carcinoma: a National Cancer Database study

BACKGROUND: About 10–20% of patients with anal squamous cell carcinoma (SCCa) present with metastatic disease and are usually treated with systemic chemotherapy. However, primary tumor control is crucial as local failure is associated with significant morbidity. Using the largest cohort to date, we report the impact of local therapy on survival among patients with metastatic anal SCCa. METHODS: Data were collected from US hospitals that contributed to the National Cancer Database (NCDB) between 2004 and 2015. Patients who did not receive palliative systemic chemotherapy were excluded from analysis. Univariate (UVA) and multivariable analyses (MVA) were performed to identify factors associated with patient outcome. Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the association between tumor/patient characteristics and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: A total of 1,160 patients were identified over the 12 years of study. Median age was 57 years. Majority were female (64.9%), non-Hispanic Whites (79.1%) and had Charlson-Deyo Score of 0 (83.6%). Most common metastatic sites were liver (25.9%), lung (11.6%) and bone (8.5%). More than 79% of the patients had received radiation to the primary site, and 10.4% underwent surgical resection for local control. Use of local therapy correlated closely with OS on MVA (HR 0.66; 0.55–0.79; P<0.001), with a 12-month and 5-year OS rates of 72.8% and 25.7% respectively, compared with 61.1% and 14.6% for patients treated with chemotherapy only. Poor prognostic factors included male gender (HR 1.44; 1.24–1.67; P<0.001), age >70 years (HR 1.28; 1.02–1.62; P=0.034), lack of health insurance (HR 1.32; 1.02–1.71; P=0.034), and cloacogenic zone location (HR 4.02; 1.43–11.30; P=0.008). There was no benefit from abdominoperineal resection (mOS =19.7 months; HR 1.05; 0.48–2.29; P=0.909), but both local resection of the primary (mOS =24.8 months, HR 0.48; 0.29–0.80; P=0.005) and palliative radiation (mOS =22.6 months; HR 0.66; 0.55–0.79; P<0.001) were associated with improved OS. CONCLUSIONS: In addition to systemic therapy, resection of the primary tumor or palliative radiation improved OS in patients with anal SCCa. Patients unlikely to benefit from local control were those >70 years of age, male, lack of health insurance and cloacogenic carcinoma.