Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Apr;50(4):254-62.
doi: 10.1016/j.oraloncology.2014.01.015. Epub 2014 Feb 18.

Health related quality of life in head and neck cancer treated with radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy: a systematic review

Affiliations

Health related quality of life in head and neck cancer treated with radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy: a systematic review

Jonathan Klein et al. Oral Oncol. 2014 Apr.

Abstract

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is a subjective measure of patients' experience of disease and treatment. We systematically reviewed the literature to identify high quality manuscripts reporting HRQoL outcomes in adults with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (HNSCC) treated with an organ-sparing curative regimen of radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy. Assessments were performed independently by two reviewers; a third reviewer resolved disputes. High quality reports were reviewed in detail to identify trends in HRQoL outcomes. MEDLINE and EMBASE searching yielded 276 distinct reports, plus 24 added via hand search. Of these, 53 met eligibility criteria and 18 were deemed high quality reports on the basis of a quality assessment tool. HRQoL declines after treatment but recovers to baseline levels, generally within 12months. However, xerostomia-related HRQoL deficits may remain long-term. Combined chemoradiotherapy showed a trend toward worse HRQoL compared with RT alone. Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) yields better HRQoL compared with conventional or three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy. Baseline HRQoL may independently predict local-regional control and overall survival. Future research should incorporate HRQoL into phase III trials. However, adequate effort and journal space must be afforded to the HRQoL results of these studies to ensure proper reporting methods are followed, allowing clinicians to incorporate HRQoL into patient counseling and clinical decision making.

Keywords: Chemoradiotherapy; Head and neck neoplasms; Quality of life; Questionnaires; Radiotherapy; Squamous cell carcinoma; Systematic reviews.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources