Explorative study on quality of life in relation to salivary secretion rate in head and neck cancer patients treated with radiotherapy up to 2 years post treatment.

• The aim of this study was to analyse quality of life (QoL) pretreatment and up to 24months post radiation therapy (RT) in patients with head and neck (H&N) cancer.Twenty-nine patients (19 men and 10 women) with a mean age of 59±8years were included. The stimulated salivary secretion was measured and the patients completed the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life questionnaires (EORTC QLQ-C30 and H&N35) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HADS) pretreatment and at 6, 12 and 24months post RT.At all time-points after RT (6, 12, and 24months), patients with hyposalivation (stimulated secretion rate ≤0.7mL/min) reported clinically significant differences (> 10 points) regarding insomnia, swallowing, social eating, dry mouth, and sticky saliva. Statistically significant differences were found for emotional functioning and insomnia at 12months (P<0.05 for both) and for sticky saliva at both 12 and 24months (P<0.05 and P<0.01). The number of clinically significant differences increased from 10 at both 6 and 12months post-RT to 14 functioning/symptom scales and single items at the 24months follow-up. At 24months post RT, 21% of patients with hyposalivation had HADS scores suggesting anxiety problems compared to 7% for those with stimulated salivary secretion rates >0.7mL/min.Patients with hyposalivation showed deterioration in health related quality of life (QoL) at 24months compared with 12months post RT. Most pronounced were problems with insomnia, swallowing, social eating, dry mouth, and sticky saliva.

Ämnesord

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Klinisk medicin -- Oto-rhino-laryngologi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Clinical Medicine -- Otorhinolaryngology (hsv//eng)

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