Abstract:
Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has now become an important outcome measure in the assessment of patients treated for oral cancer. A total of 71 patients were enrolled in the study during the period between 2004 and 2007. The HRQOL was assessed by the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires, pretreatment, 3, 6 and 12 months posttreatment. The general trend was that HRQOL deteriorated significantly during treatment , followed by a slow recovery until 12-month follow-up with few exeptions (dry mouth, opening mouth, sticky saliva and swallowing). Especially there was a significant deterioration of physical, social and role functioning 3 months after treatment. A number of different patient and treatment factors were identifiend that affect HRQOL. Among these are gender, site and stage of the tumor, method of tissue reconstruction and post-operativ radio/radiochemotherapy. Patients undergoing surgery for oral cancer have a profound fall in quality of life scores by 3 months, and their scores approach pretreatment levels by 12 months. Long-term side effects such as dry mouth, opening mouth, sticky saliva and swallowing remained significantly lower.