Quality of life of disease-free survivors of advanced (stage III or IV) oropharyngeal cancer

BACKGROUND: This study assessed the quality of life (QOL) of patients with advanced oropharyngeal cancer (stage III or IV) who were disease-free at 1 year posttreatment. METHODS: Between 1993 and 1994, 13 consecutive cases were identified from the University of Washington QOL registry. Patients were divided into two groups, depending on treatment: surgical group, 6 patients treated with surgical resection and postoperative radiotherapy; and nonsurgical group, 7 patients treated with definitive radiotherapy. RESULTS: Composite pretreatment and posttreatment QOL scores were similar for the two treatment groups. Subset analysis of QOL domains revealed that both treatment groups generally reported a worsening of chewing and swallowing. A worsening of appearance and of speech was more frequently reported by the surgical group. Sixty-seven percent of the surgically treated patients reported pain relief, as opposed to only 29% of the nonsurgical group. CONCLUSION: Composite QOL-score sensitivity may be compromised by inverse changes in individual QOL domains. Treatment-specific QOL domains may be more sensitive measures of outcome.