Verdonck-de Leeuw Irma M, van Nieuwenhuizen Annette, Leemans C René
Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Curr Opin Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2012 Apr;20(2):142-7. doi: 10.1097/MOO.0b013e32834f5fd7.
To review the recent literature on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients.
HRQOL is an important part of well designed clinical trials. HRQOL seems to be an independent predictor of survival, but this association may be influenced by various cancer-related, personal, biological, psychobehavioural, physical, lifestyle-related, and social factors. Less is known about the course of HRQOL over time and about the same above-mentioned possible factors associated with (change in) HRQOL of HNC patients. Symptom management and psychosocial care may be beneficial for HNC patients to improve HRQOL, but more randomized controlled trials are needed. Studies on HRQOL in HNC are most often based on cross-sectional designs. The variability in the outcome measures hampers the generalizability of the results of these studies. Information on HRQOL of caregivers is scarce.
Better information on all aspects of the course of HRQOL from diagnosis and treatment to long-term survivorship or death is highly needed in both patients and their caregivers, enabling reliable and valid predictive modelling. More evidence of efficacy of (new) treatment options, symptom management, and psychosocial care is needed, also in the context of increasing long-term survival and growing attention for cancer survivorship.
回顾近期关于头颈癌（HNC）患者健康相关生活质量（HRQOL）的文献。
HRQOL是精心设计的临床试验的重要组成部分。HRQOL似乎是生存的独立预测因素，但这种关联可能受到各种与癌症相关、个人、生物学、心理行为、身体、生活方式相关和社会因素的影响。关于HRQOL随时间的变化过程以及与HNC患者HRQOL（变化）相关的上述可能因素，人们了解较少。症状管理和心理社会护理可能有助于HNC患者改善HRQOL，但需要更多的随机对照试验。HNC患者HRQOL的研究大多基于横断面设计。结果测量的变异性阻碍了这些研究结果的普遍性。关于照顾者HRQOL的信息很少。
患者及其照顾者都非常需要关于从诊断和治疗到长期生存或死亡的HRQOL过程各方面的更好信息，以便进行可靠有效的预测建模。在长期生存率不断提高以及对癌症幸存者关注度不断增加的背景下，还需要更多关于（新的）治疗方案、症状管理和心理社会护理疗效的证据。
