Background: Quality of life (QoL) studies are well established when accompanying trials in head and neck cancer, but studies on long-term survivors are rare.
Aims: The aim was to evaluate long-term follow-up patients treated with an intensified multi-modality therapy.
Setting and design: Cross-sectional study, tertiary care center.
Patients and methods: A total of 135 oral/oropharyngeal cancer survivors having been treated with an effective four modality treatment (intra-arterial induction chemotherapy, radical surgery, adjuvant radiation, concurrent systemic chemotherapy) filled European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 and HN35 questionnaires. Mean distance to treatment was 6.1 (1.3-16.6) years. Results were compared with a reference patient population (EORTC reference manual). In-study group comparison was also carried out.
Statistical analysis: One-sample t-test, Mann-Whitney-test, Kruskal-Wallis analysis.
Results: QoL scores of both populations were well comparable. Global health status, cognitive and social functioning, fatigue, social eating, status of teeth, mouth opening and dryness, and sticky saliva were significantly worse in the study population; pain and need for pain killers, cough, need for nutritional support, problems with weight loss and gain were judged to be significantly less. Patients 1-year posttreatment had generally worse scores as compared to patients with two or more years distance to treatment. Complex reconstructive measures and adjuvant (chemo) radiation were main reasons for significant impairment of QoL.
Conclusion: Subjective disease status of patients following a maximized multi-modality treatment showed an expectable high degree of limitations, but was generally comparable to a reference group treated less intensively, suggesting that the administration of an intensified multi-modality treatment is feasible in terms of QoL/effectivity ratio.
Keywords: Adjuvant chemoradiation; head and neck cancer; intra-arterial induction chemotherapy; oral cancer; quality of life.