Clinical trials provide valuable treatment insights but often fail to represent real-world outcomes. This is particularly true for advanced laryngeal cancer patients, who face significant co-morbidities and socioeconomic challenges. This study evaluates whether outcomes from research datasets in The Cancer Imaging Archive reflect real-world survival in a regional cohort from North-East England.

This retrospective analysis compares outcomes between The Cancer Imaging Archive (n = 198) and North-East England (n = 222) cohorts. Demographics, treatment modalities and five-year disease-specific survival were assessed via Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox regression.

North-East England had a lower five-year disease-specific survival (59.2 per cent vs. 76.9 per cent; p = 0.0018) and was characterised by greater co-morbidity burden and upfront surgery with adjuvant therapy (51 per cent), whereas The Cancer Imaging Archive patients received upfront chemoradiotherapy (53 per cent) or radiotherapy alone (41 per cent).

The poorer real-world outcomes reflect the challenges of generalising research data to heterogeneous populations. Bridging the gap between research efficacy and real-world effectiveness is critical to delivering equitable care for advanced laryngeal cancer.