Department of Otolaryngology, Counties-Manukau District Health Board, Auckland, New Zealand.
Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2012 Sep;147(3):404-6. doi: 10.1177/0194599812450856. Epub 2012 Jun 11.
This article discusses how quality-of-life assessment in patients with head and neck cancer might be weighed against survival and how such assessment might be applied in clinical practice. While survival is understandably considered to be the outcome of primary interest, there are several clinical scenarios in which quality of life can be considered as a primary outcome. Quality-adjusted survival is also an important consideration and needs to be incorporated into the results of treatment. However, quality-of-life assessment has hitherto been virtually only a research tool and not been incorporated into clinical practice. Nowadays, speech pathologists and dietitians are integral to the multidisciplinary team that treats patients with head and neck cancer. The main point of this article is to provide a rationale for the proposition that the health psychologist--who is best able to understand and manage the psychosocial issues--should also be included as one of the team.
本文讨论了头颈部癌症患者的生活质量评估如何与生存相权衡，以及如何将这种评估应用于临床实践。虽然生存显然被认为是首要关注的结果，但在某些临床情况下，生活质量可以被视为主要结果。质量调整生存也是一个重要的考虑因素，需要纳入治疗结果中。然而，到目前为止，生活质量评估几乎只是一种研究工具，尚未纳入临床实践。如今，言语病理学家和营养师是治疗头颈部癌症患者的多学科团队不可或缺的一部分。本文的主要观点是提出一个理由，即最能理解和管理心理社会问题的健康心理学家也应该被纳入团队成员之一。
