Quality of life in patients with oral and oropharyngeal cancer

• Published in: International journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery Vol. 38; no. 3; pp. 250 - 255
• Main Authors: Infante-Cossio, P, Torres-Carranza, E, Cayuela, A, Gutierrez-Perez, J.L, Gili-Miner, M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2009; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Age Factors; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Biological and medical sciences; Chi-Square Distribution; Cost of Illness; Dentistry; EORTC; Female; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Mouth Neoplasms - psychology; oral cancer; oropharyngeal cancer; Oropharyngeal Neoplasms - psychology; Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology; quality of life; Quality of Life - psychology; Severity of Illness Index; Sex Factors; Sickness Impact Profile; Spain; Statistics, Nonparametric; Surgery; Tumors; Upper respiratory tract, upper alimentary tract, paranasal sinuses, salivary glands: diseases, semeiology; Spain; oropharyngeal cancer; quality of life; EORTC; oral cancer; Human; Oral cancer; Stomatology; Oropharynx cancer; Malignant tumor; Quality of life; Treatment; Surgery; ENT disease; Oral cavity disease; Pharynx disease; Cancer
• ISSN: 0901-5027; 1399-0020
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijom.2008.12.001

Abstract Quality of life (QoL) is an important aspect in the clinical assessment and management of patients with cancer. The aim of the present study was to evaluate QoL at the time of diagnosis in patients with oral and oropharyngeal cancer and to establish the influence of variables such as gender, age, tumor location and tumor staging. The authors studied 149 patients with oral and oropharyngeal cancer for 2 years. QoL was measured using the EORTC QLQ-C30 and its specific modules for head and neck cancer QLQ-H&N 35. Variable deterioration of QoL was observed before therapy. The emotional domain showed the greatest alterations, while pain was the most remarkable symptom variable. QoL seems to be associated with gender (female patients obtained worse scores in most of the functional scales), age (patients < 65 years scored better), tumor location (orpharyngeal tumors showed worse prognosis) and tumor staging (early stages obtained better scores than advances ones). Many patients with oral and oropharyngeal cancer show poor QoL before initiating treatment. The present study of a homogeneous group of patients is the first carried out in Spain following the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire and its results may serve for future reference. These results are similar to those obtained in populations from the north and centre of Europe.