TITLE:
Head and Neck Cancer: Closer Look at Patients Quality of Life
AUTHORS:
Azza N. Taher
KEYWORDS:
Head and Neck Cancer, Radiotherapy, Chemo-Radiation, Quality of Life
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Cancer Therapy,
Vol.7 No.2,
February
29,
2016
ABSTRACT: Head and neck cancer (HNC) as a disease and its treatment have a disproportionate impact on all aspects of patients’ quality of life (QOL). QOL is a multidimensional construct of an individual’s subjective assessment of the impact of an illness or treatment on his/her physical, psychological, social and somatic functioning and general well-being [1]. Thus, QOL has become an important treatment outcome in HNC [2]. Objective: It is to evaluate the quality of life of patients dealing with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck treated in the radiotherapy department, National Cancer Institute, Cairo University. Material and methods: Starting from March 2012 to December 2013, 87 patients with histopathologically proven Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) were taking part in our prospective study. The patients’ QOL answers to the questionnaire were collected for both the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the EORTC Head and Neck questionnaires (QLQ-H&N35) and then all points were transformed to a 0 - 100 scale according to the guidelines of the EORTC. Certain clinical factors were chosen to evaluate their effect on the QOL; site of primary tumor, clinical stage, and mode of therapy applied: radiotherapy versus chemo-radiotherapy (CRT). Moreover, age, gender and smoking were studied. Results: Majority of the items assessed in the QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35 questionnaire showed that they were negatively impacted at the end of treatment. As for the factors that had a negative effect on the QOL, they comprised; female gender (p