Return to Work Up to 5 Years After the End of Treatment Among Patients With Head and Neck Cancer

Adverse effects of cancer and its treatment may hamper return to work (RTW) among patients with head and neck cancer (HNC).

To investigate RTW among patients with HNC from end of treatment to 5 years after treatment and associations of RTW with sociodemographic, clinical, work-related, personal, lifestyle, physical, and psychological factors and cancer-related symptoms.

This prospective, longitudinal, multicenter cohort study of patients with HNC used data from the Netherlands Quality of Life and Biomedical cohort. This study focused on patients younger than 65 years (with a subanalysis of patients younger than 60 years) from time of cancer diagnosis (March 2014 to June 2018) to 5 years after end of treatment (January 2019 to July 2023). Data analysis occurred from April 2023 to August 2024.

Standard clinical care.

Work status was measured at 3 and 6 months, and 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 years after treatment using an adjusted version of the Productivity Cost Questionnaire. Cox regression analyses were performed to investigate factors (baseline, 3 months, and 6 months) associated with time to RTW.

A total of 184 patients with HNC younger than 65 years (mean [SD] age, 55.4 [7.0] years; 146 men [79%]) were included and 77 (42%) had oropharyngeal cancer. RTW increased from 26% (42 of 160 individuals) at 3 months to 65% (89 of 137 individuals) at 1 year, after which it reduced to 52% (51 of 98 individuals) at 5 years. At 5 years after treatment, an additional 28 of 98 participants (29%) were retired. Minor surgery (vs major surgery) was associated with faster RTW from end of treatment onwards (hazard ratio [HR], 2.73; 95% CI, 1.17-6.37). Older age (HR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.94-0.999) and more fatigue at 3 months (HR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.98-0.995) were associated with slower RTW from 3 months onwards. Older age was also associated with slower RTW from 6 months onwards (HR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.93-0.998). Among the 127 patients with HNC younger than 60 years, RTW was 72% (47 individuals) at 5 years after treatment. Advanced tumor stage (HR, 0.59; 95% CI, 0.39-0.90) and more fatigue (HR, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.98-0.999) were associated with slower RTW in this group.

This cohort study found that the majority of patients with HNC in the Netherlands returned to work within 1 year and that certain sociodemographic and clinical factors and cancer-related symptoms were associated with time to RTW. These results may inform patients with HNC and provide insight into potential targets, such as fatigue, to improve RTW.