Majid Aamina, Sayeed Bushra Z, Khan Maryam, Lakhani Murk, Saleem Mariam M, Rajani Hina, Ramesh Priyanka, Hashmani Nauman, Zia Muneeba, Abid Husnain, Majid Bushra, Jamali Momal, Murtaza Kinza, Kamal Aneeqa, Hussain Maryam
Student, Dow Medical College, Karachi, Pakistan.
Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS), Karachi, Pakistan.
Cureus. 2017 May 2;9(5):e1215. doi: 10.7759/cureus.1215.
We compared the pre and post-treatment quality of life in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients and identified factors that could improve the quality of life in such patients. Methods: The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) questionnaire was administered to 84 patients' pre and post-treatment. Patients who had non-metastatic, measurable, and untreated HNCs were invited, provided that their age was below 80 years. We did not discriminate based on treatment modality, stage of cancer, or co-morbidities. Patients who were mentally incapacitated, with secondary or recurrent HNC, distant metastasis, skin cancer, congenital anomaly of the head and neck, chronic illness, or any previous or current psychiatric illness were excluded from the study. A high mean score on the functional scale and a low score on symptom scale signify a better quality of life. We used the dependent t-test to compare pre and post-treatment scores.
We found no statistically significant differences in any variables, except the four symptom scales of diarrhoea, constipation, nausea/vomiting, and financial difficulty. All of these variables had increased mean scores with p values of < 0.001. Also, we found no statistical significance (p = 0.250) when comparing the pre-treatment (59.4 ± 18.3) and post-treatment (61.2 ± 16.2) scores for the global health status.
We found no improvement in the quality of life in HNC patients despite intervention. In fact, diarrhoea, constipation, nausea/vomiting, and financial difficulty of these patients worsened post-treatment.
我们比较了头颈癌（HNC）患者治疗前后的生活质量，并确定了可改善此类患者生活质量的因素。
对84例患者在治疗前后进行了欧洲癌症研究与治疗组织生活质量问卷C30（EORTC QLQ - C30）调查。邀请年龄在80岁以下、患有非转移性、可测量且未经治疗的头颈癌患者，我们不根据治疗方式、癌症分期或合并症进行区分。精神无行为能力、患有继发性或复发性头颈癌、远处转移、皮肤癌、头颈部先天性异常、慢性病或任何既往或当前精神疾病的患者被排除在研究之外。功能量表得分高且症状量表得分低表示生活质量较好。我们使用配对t检验比较治疗前后的得分。
除腹泻、便秘、恶心/呕吐和经济困难这四个症状量表外，我们发现其他任何变量均无统计学显著差异。所有这些变量的平均得分均有所增加，p值<0.001。此外，在比较全球健康状况的治疗前得分（59.4±18.3）和治疗后得分（61.2±16.2）时，我们未发现统计学显著性（p = 0.250）。
尽管进行了干预，我们发现头颈癌患者的生活质量并未改善。事实上，这些患者的腹泻、便秘、恶心/呕吐和经济困难在治疗后恶化了。
