Primary temporal bone squamous cell carcinoma: Comparing the prognostic value of the American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM classification (8th edition) with the revised Pittsburgh staging system

Background: Retrospectively considering a temporal bone squamous cell car- cinomas (TBSCCs) series, our aim was to compare the predictive power of the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system (8th edition) with the revised Pittsburgh staging system (rPSS) in terms of disease-free sur- vival (DFS), disease-specific survival (DSS), and overall survival (OS). Methods: Forty-three TBSCCs consecutively treated surgically were reviewed. The prognostic performance of AJCC and rPSS was compared. Results: The areas under the curves for the prediction of DFS, DSS, and OS did not differ significantly between both staging systems (p = 0.518, p = 0.940, and p = 0.910, respectively). Harrel's C-indexes for respectively the AJCC and rPSS were 0.76 and 0.70 for DFS, 0.73 and 0.76 for DSS, 0.66 and 0.63 for OS. Conclusion: Comparable prognostic accuracy was observed between AJCC and rPSS. Levels of prognostic performance were only acceptable for both sys- tems, according to Hosmer–Lemeshow scale. Further efforts are needed to define new TBSCC staging modalities with higher prognostic reliability.