Abstract IA19: Clinical and imaging methods for grading and predicting dysphagia in patients with head and neck cancer

Abstract

Abstract Dysphagia is a priority issue in head and neck cancer care. Swallowing is a complex function tied both to psychosocial well-being and health in cancer survivorship. Much of our understanding of dysphagia relies on the method of measuring swallowing function along the continuum of care. Options to grade dysphagia are many and varied. Patient-reported outcome (PRO) questionnaires have been widely adopted both in research studies and increasingly in clinical practice with the goal of understanding the patients' perception of swallowing abilities. Yet, sensory aberrations and individual coping make it such that PROs are often found discordant with physical swallowing function on imaging studies, such as radiographic modified barium swallow (MBS) studies, particularly in long-term survivors. For these reasons, many groups advocate for multimodal or multidimensional swallowing outcome panels to comprehensively assess dysphagia in head and neck cancer survivorship. This session will review performance, psychometrics, and predictive yield of various dysphagia classification methods for the head and neck cancer population. Citation Format: Katherine A. Hutcheson. Clinical and imaging methods for grading and predicting dysphagia in patients with head and neck cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-AHNS Head and Neck Cancer Conference: Optimizing Survival and Quality of Life through Basic, Clinical, and Translational Research; April 23-25, 2017; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2017;23(23_Suppl):Abstract nr IA19.