Health-related quality of life in oropharyngeal cancer survivors - a population-based study

The aim of this study was to compare QoL of oropharyngeal cancer survivors who had received different treatments.

We contacted 954 survivors. Each survivor received the QoL questionnaires EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-H&N35.

A total of 263 survivors completed the questionnaires (28% responses). Forty-five of them had undergone surgery, 20 had received definitive radiotherapy or chemo-radiotherapy, 85 surgery plus adjuvant radiotherapy, and 111 surgery plus adjuvant chemo-radiotherapy. Survivors who had received adjuvant radiotherapy and surgery reported significantly more problems with swallowing (B=13.43 [95% Confidence Interval (CI) 1.83-25.03]), senses (B=24,91 [CI 11.86-37.97]), eating (B=16.91 [CI 3.46-30.36]), dry mouth (B=26.42 [CI 12.17-40.67]), sticky saliva (B=22.37 [CI 6.23-38.50]) and nutritional supplements (B=18.59 [CI 0.62-36.56]) than those who had received surgery only. Survivors who had received adjuvant chemo-radiotherapy and surgery reported significantly many more problems with dry mouth (B=34.15 [CI 18.91-49.39]) and sticky saliva (B=22.90 [CI 5.65-40.16]), and fewer problems with physical functioning (B=-12.07 [CI 0.49-23-64]).

Survivors who participated in this survey and who had undergone surgery alone reported in some head- and neck-specific domains a better health-related quality of life than patients who had undergone multi-modal treatment or adjuvant radiotherapy.