Quality of life of disease-free survivors of advanced (stage III or IV) oropharyngeal cancer.

Abstract

This study assessed the quality of life (QOL) of patients with advanced oropharyngeal cancer (stage III or IV) who were disease-free at 1 year posttreatment. Between 1993 and 1994, 13 consecutive cases were identified from the University of Washington QOL registry. Patients were divided into two groups, depending on treatment: surgical group, 6 patients treated with surgical resection and postoperative radiotherapy; and nonsurgical group, 7 patients treated with definitive radiotherapy. Composite pretreatment and posttreatment QOL scores were similar for the two treatment groups. Subset analysis of QOL domains revealed that both treatment groups generally reported a worsening of chewing and swallowing. A worsening of appearance and of speech was more frequently reported by the surgical group. Sixty-seven percent of the surgically treated patients reported pain relief, as opposed to only 29% of the nonsurgical group. Composite QOL-score sensitivity may be compromised by inverse changes in individual QOL domains. Treatment-specific QOL domains may be more sensitive measures of outcome.