| 1. |
- Taylor, Katherine J., et al.
(författare)
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Long-term health-related quality of life in head and neck cancer survivors: A large multinational study
- 2024
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Ingår i: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CANCER. - 0020-7136 .- 1097-0215.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Head and neck cancer (HNC) patients suffer from a range of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) issues, but little is known about their long-term HRQoL. This study explored associations between treatment group and HRQoL at least 5 years' post-diagnosis in HNC survivors. In an international cross-sectional study, HNC survivors completed the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) quality of life core questionnaire (EORTC-QLQ-C30) and its HNC module (EORTC-QLQ-H&N35). Meaningful HRQoL differences were examined between five treatment groups: (a) surgery, (b) radiotherapy, (c) chemo-radiotherapy, (d) radiotherapy +/- chemotherapy and neck dissection and (e) any other surgery (meaning any tumour surgery that is not a neck dissection) and radiotherapy +/- chemotherapy. Twenty-six sites in 11 countries enrolled 1105 survivors. They had a median time since diagnosis of 8 years, a mean age of 66 years and 71% were male. After adjusting for age, sex, tumour site and UICC stage, there was evidence for meaningful differences (10 points or more) in HRQoL between treatment groups in seven domains (Fatigue, Mouth Pain, Swallowing, Senses, Opening Mouth, Dry Mouth and Sticky Saliva). Survivors who had single-modality treatment had better or equal HRQoL in every domain compared to survivors with multimodal treatment, with the largest differences for Dry Mouth and Sticky Saliva. For Global Quality of Life, Physical and Social Functioning, Constipation, Dyspnoea and Financial Difficulties, at least some treatment groups had better outcomes compared to a general population. Our data suggest that multimodal treatment is associated with worse HRQoL in the long-term compared to single modality.
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| 2. |
- Taylor, Katherine J, et al.
(författare)
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Serious Long-Term Effects of Head and Neck Cancer from the Survivors' Point of View.
- 2023
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Ingår i: Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland). - : MDPI AG. - 2227-9032. ; 11:6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The long-term problems of head and neck cancer survivors (HNCS) are not well known. In a cross-sectional international study aimed at exploring the long-term quality of life in this population, 1114 HNCS were asked to state their two most serious long-term effects. A clinician recorded the responses during face-to-face appointments. A list of 15 example problems was provided, but a free text field was also available. A total of 1033 survivors responded to the question. The most frequent problems were 'dry mouth' (DM) (n = 476; 46%), 'difficulty swallowing/eating' (DSE) (n = 408; 40%), 'hoarseness/difficulty speaking' (HDS) (n = 169; 16%), and 'pain in the head and neck' (PHN) (n = 142; 14%). A total of 5% reported no problems. Logistic regression adjusted for age, gender, treatment, and tumor stage and site showed increased odds of reporting DM and DSE for chemo-radiotherapy (CRT) alone compared to surgery alone (odds ratio (OR): 4.7, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.5-9.0; OR: 2.1, CI: 1.1-3.9), but decreased odds for HDS and PHN (OR: 0.3, CI: 0.1-0.6; OR: 0.2, CI: 0.1-0.5). Survivors with UICC stage IV at diagnosis compared to stage I had increased odds of reporting HDS (OR: 1.9, CI: 1.2-3.0). Laryngeal cancer survivors had reduced odds compared to oropharynx cancer survivors of reporting DM (OR: 0.4, CI: 0.3-0.6) but increased odds of HDS (OR: 7.2, CI: 4.3-12.3). This study provides evidence of the serious long-term problems among HNCS.
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| 3. |
- Zanker, Markus, et al.
(författare)
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An Autometed Approach for Deriving Semantic Annotations of Tourism Products based on Geo-Spatial Information
- 2009
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Ingår i: Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009 Proceedings of the International Conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2009. - Viennna New York : Springer. - 9783211939703 ; , s. 211-221
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- High quality product data is a necessary prerequisite for supporting efficient browsing and recommendation procedures on e-commerce platforms. This is especially true for the tourism domain where an abundance of information can easily overwhelm users. Although classification data such as to which category (e.g. accommodation, restaurant or sight) a tourism product belongs is usually directly available, qualitative information, such as proximity to a lake or opportunities for dining or shopping, is rarely provided in a structured way. As a consequence, users can not restrict their search on these criteria; rather, it would require costly manual information acquisition efforts. In this paper we propose a knowledge-based approach that automatically associates such qualitative concepts with tourism products based on their geographic coordinates and their spatial proximity. An initial evaluation of the approach that considered automatically generated annotations within different regions suggests that it can be used as an alternative to domain experts.
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