Quality of life after high-dose brachytherapy in patients with early oral carcinoma tight or positive resection margins
Abstract
Background: The prevalence of head and neck tumours is constantly increasing in the last decades representing the serious medical and social problem. The retrospective assessment of the quality of life in patients with early stages of oral cavity tumours after the high dose rate brachytherapy treatment (HDR BRT) was realised.
Material and Methods: The quality of life has been evaluated in 14 patients treated at the Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy, University Hospital Hradec Kralove for early stadium of oral sqamous cell carcinoma using the high dose rate brachytherapy treatment. The standardized EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-H&N 35 questionnaires have been used in this study.
Evaluation of the questionnaires was performed 12 months after the treatment. Results: The general health status using the EORTC QLQ-C30 was scored with 70 points.
The most severe reported symptoms were fatigue, insomnia, loss of appetite, dyspnoea and financial problems. The main problems being identified by EORTC QLQ-H&N 35 were weight gain, coughing, pain, sticky saliva and social eating.
On the contrary, weight loss, speech impairments, difficulties in mouth opening, swallowing and sensory problems were not considered as significant. Conclusion: High dose rate brachytherapy treatment represents an effective treatment method of early oral cancer with acceptable quality of life.
The initiation of the prospective multi-centric study focused on the quality of life of patients with head and neck tumours would be desirable.