Survivorship profile and post-treatment quality of life of oral cancer survivors in comparison with caregivers: An analysis of a real-world cohort of a developing country.

Abstract

e18036 Background: Oral cavity cancer is the second most common cancer in India; India bears the most burden of oral cancer in the world. The most effective way to study the effectiveness of treatments is in clinical trials, but the quality of life (QOL) and post-treatment effects of those treatments are seldom studied in real-world settings. Methods: All oral cancer survivors treated with curative intent at our institute from September 2019 to January 2021, who were disease-free for a minimum of six months following treatment, were included in this study. The QOL of these cancer survivors was compared with that of their caregivers using the WHOQOL BREF questionnaire. The complete survivorship profile was evaluated using a Constant shoulder score for shoulder dysfunction, clinical oral dryness score (CODS) for xerostomia, Sydney Swallow Questionnaire (SSQ) for swallowing dysfunction, Patterson scale for lymphedema, Comprehensive Score for financial Toxicity (COST)‐Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) questionnaire for financial toxicity, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale - 21 Items (DASS-21) for psychological wellbeing. Results: A total of seventy-nine survivors were included. The median age was 49 years. Though both survivors and caregivers had similar QOL scores in the physical and environmental domains, survivors had poor scores in the social (M = 58.7,SD = 21.9) and psychological domains (M = 60.4,SD = 15.6). The T stage (p = 0.06), surgery (p = 0.008), and trismus (p = 0.03) were significant factors affecting swallowing. Those patients who had undergone selective neck dissection had better shoulder scores compared to those who had modified radical neck dissection (p = 0.006). 75% of people had xerostomia and 10.9% had severe xerostomia. Internal lymphedema was seen in 30.4% of people. Depression and anxiety were recorded in 46 (58.2%) and 33 (41.8%) patients respectively. Employment status (p = 0.04) and treatment modality (p = 0.05) were significant factors affecting financial toxicity. Conclusions: Oral cancer survivors had a poor psychosocial QOL compared to their caregivers. Treatment-related functional sequelae had a significant negative impact on quality of life across all domains. Clinical trial information: CTRI/2020/07/026848.