Quality of life between early stage and advanced stage nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients in dr. sardjito hospital yogyakarta, Indonesia

Abstract

Background: Patients with advanced stage Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (NPC) have much better quality of life compared to other types of cancer, which causes the patients to experience misdiagnosis or they go to see the doctor in an already advanced stage, consequently therapy becomes more complex. Research used specific questionnaire measurements for head and neck cancer, which was the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Head and Neck Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-H & N35) to detect small changes in NPC patients’ quality of life at the initial clinical staging is required. Method: A cross sectional study, all observations on research subjects were made once at the beginning of NPC staging and on the same episode in ENT Policlinic Dr. Sardjito Hospital Yogyakarta Indonesia, starting from September 2018 - March 2019. Result: Derived from 78 research subjects consist of 50 men & 28 women diagnosed with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, on NPC patients research subject with European Organization For Research And Treatment Of Cancer - Head and Neck Cancer assessment of Life Quality Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-H & N35) resulted that the early stages who had good quality of life were 11 patients (14.1%) and poor quality of life was 1 patient (1.3%), while advanced stage NPC patients who had good quality of life were 62 patients (79.5%) and 4 patients had poor quality of life (5.1%).