Abstract
BackgroundAim of this study is to thoroughly assess pretreatment organ function in advanced head and neck cancer through various clinical outcome measures and patients' views.MethodsA comprehensive, multidimensional assessment was used, that included quality of life, swallowing, mouth opening, and weight changes. Fifty-five patients with stage III-IV disease were entered in this study prior to organ preserving (chemoradiation) treatment.ResultsAll patients showed pretreatment abnormalities or problems, identified by one or more of the outcome measures. Most frequent problems concerned swallowing, pain, and weight loss. Interestingly, clinical outcome measures and patients' perception did no always concur. E.g. videofluoroscopy identified aspiration and laryngeal penetration in 18% of the patients, whereas only 7 patients (13%) perceived this as problematic; only 2 out of 7 patients with objective trismus actually perceived trismus.ConclusionThe assessment identified several problems already pre-treatment, in this patient population. A thorough assessment of both clinical measures and patients' views appears to be necessary to gain insight in all (perceived) pre-existing functional and quality of life problems.
Highlights
Aim of this study is to thoroughly assess pretreatment organ function in advanced head and neck cancer through various clinical outcome measures and patients' views
The aim of this study is to evaluate the pretreatment organ function in advanced head and neck cancer patients through patients' view and clinical measures
Data were collected as baseline measurements for a Randomised Clinical Trial (RCT) on "Prevention of trismus, swallowing and speech problems in patients treated with chemoradiation for advanced head and neck cancer"
Summary
Aim of this study is to thoroughly assess pretreatment organ function in advanced head and neck cancer through various clinical outcome measures and patients' views. In recent years chemoradiation (CRT) has become an indispensable treatment modality for advanced head and neck cancer, improving local control and overall survival in all sites, except in the (stage IV) laryngeal cancers [1,2,3]. CRT can have a detrimental effect on organ function, and on patients' quality of life [4]. Many studies have investigated typical problems associated with head and neck cancer [12,13,14,15,16].
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