Discriminant analysis in predicting survival of patients with cancer of the larynx or hypopharynx.

In order to assess the feasibility of computer-assisted prognostication, step-wise discriminant analysis was applied to data retrospectively obtained from 243 patients who underwent surgery for cancer of the larynx. In all, 62 variables were studied in each patient. Ninety-four out of 243 patients had complete information on the 62 variables studied. With data from these 94 patients a linear discriminant function was obtained, with an overall accuracy of 87.2%. The rate of correct prediction was 84.6% for cancer recurrence, and 88.2% for survival without recurrence. Only 11 variables of the 62 used for analysis were necessary to obtain these results. This paper confirms the usefulness of multivariate analysis in clinical practice.