TY - JOUR
T1 - Pre-treatment quality of life as a predictor of distant metastasis-free survival and overall survival in patients with head and neck cancer who underwent free flap reconstruction
AU - Chen, M. N.
AU - Ho, K. Y.
AU - Hung, Y. N.
AU - Su, C. C.
AU - Kuan, C. H.
AU - Tai, H. C.
AU - Cheng, N. C.
AU - Lin, C. C.
N1 - Funding Information:
The Research Ethics Committee of National Taiwan University Hospital in Taiwan granted ethical approval for this study. It was also registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, with the ID number–NCT03290352. Written consent was obtained from eligible patients after they received a full explanation of the study details. Patients who enrolled in the study were asked to respond to the UW-QoL 1 week before undergoing free-flap reconstruction, which was within the usual timeframe for assessing pre-treatment QoL for HNC patients (van Nieuwenhuizen et al., 2015). A demographic sheet was used to collect information on sex, age, marital status, educational attainment, and smoking status. A registered nurse obtained clinical characteristics of the participants, including tumor site, cancer stage, type of flap, presence of recurrence, and concurrent therapy, from their medical records. We thank the health care professionals from the plastic surgery team of the Department of Otolaryngology and those from the dental team of National Taiwan University Hospital for their assistance in this study. We also thank Adam Goulston, MS, ELS, from Edanz Group (www.edanzediting.com/ac) for editing a draft of this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - Purpose: This study examined the prognostic associations of pre-treatment quality of life (QoL) with overall survival (OS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DFMS) among patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) who underwent free flap reconstruction. Methods: A cohort of 127 HNC patients who received free flap reconstruction between November 2010 and June 2014 at a hospital were recruited. Pre-treatment QoL was measured by the University of Washington Quality of Life Questionnaire, which contains six physical domains, including speech, swallowing, appearance, saliva, taste and chewing, as well as the six social-emotional domains of pain, activity, recreation, shoulder, mood, and anxiety. Cox regression analyses were performed. Results: Results showed that pre-treatment QoL was predictive of OS and DMFS. Of the domains, swallowing, chewing, speech, taste, saliva, pain and shoulder were demonstrated to be significant predictors of OS. Additionally, swallowing, chewing, speech, pain and activity were demonstrated making significant contributions to DMFS. Conclusion: Our data supported that physical domains of pre-treatment QoL were predictors for OS and DFMS in HNC patients with free-flap reconstruction. Longitudinal studies are warranted to clarify the prognostic abilities of social-emotional domains. Information on pre-treatment QoL should be taken into account to individualize care plan for these patients, and hence prolong their survival.
AB - Purpose: This study examined the prognostic associations of pre-treatment quality of life (QoL) with overall survival (OS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DFMS) among patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) who underwent free flap reconstruction. Methods: A cohort of 127 HNC patients who received free flap reconstruction between November 2010 and June 2014 at a hospital were recruited. Pre-treatment QoL was measured by the University of Washington Quality of Life Questionnaire, which contains six physical domains, including speech, swallowing, appearance, saliva, taste and chewing, as well as the six social-emotional domains of pain, activity, recreation, shoulder, mood, and anxiety. Cox regression analyses were performed. Results: Results showed that pre-treatment QoL was predictive of OS and DMFS. Of the domains, swallowing, chewing, speech, taste, saliva, pain and shoulder were demonstrated to be significant predictors of OS. Additionally, swallowing, chewing, speech, pain and activity were demonstrated making significant contributions to DMFS. Conclusion: Our data supported that physical domains of pre-treatment QoL were predictors for OS and DFMS in HNC patients with free-flap reconstruction. Longitudinal studies are warranted to clarify the prognostic abilities of social-emotional domains. Information on pre-treatment QoL should be taken into account to individualize care plan for these patients, and hence prolong their survival.
KW - Head and neck cancer
KW - Metastasis
KW - Oncological outcome
KW - Quality of life
KW - Head and neck cancer
KW - Metastasis
KW - Oncological outcome
KW - Quality of life
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ejon.2019.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.ejon.2019.05.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 31358241
AN - SCOPUS:85066275417
SN - 1462-3889
VL - 41
SP - 1
EP - 6
JO - European Journal of Oncology Nursing
JF - European Journal of Oncology Nursing
ER -
