A cross sectional quality of life study of 116 recurrence free head and neck cancer patients. The first use of EORTC H&N35 in Danish

Figures & data

Figure 1.  Accrual and selection from the outpatient clinic program of the 116 participating recurrence free patients treated for cancer of the pharynx, larynx and oral cavity.

Table I.  Characteristics of the 116 recurrence free head and neck cancer patients who returned a valid questionnaire. Percentages are of the groups within one treatment modality if nothing else is stated.

	Surgery	Radiotherapy
	n=33	n=83	All
	28% of all patients	72% of all patients	n=116
Mean age (years) (range)	65 (45–92)	62 (36–90)	63 (36–92)
Mean time since therapy (months) (range)	21 (1–47)	20 (2–65)	20 (1–65)
WHO Performance Status (PS)
0	23 (70%)	42 (51%)	65 (56%)
1	10 (30%)	40 (48%)	50 (43%)
2	0 (0%)	1 (1%)	1 (1%)
Gender
Women	15 (45%)	27 (33%)	42 (36%)
Men	18 (55%)	56 (67%)	74 (64%)
Tumour Site
Larynx	0 (0%)	44 (53%)	44 (38%)
Pharynx	2 (6%)	32 (39%)	34 (29%)
Oral cavity	31 (94%)	7 (8%)	38 (33%)
Stage
I	20 (60%)	19 (23%)	39 (34%)
II	6 (18%)	26 (31%)	32 (28%)
III	5 (15%)	21 (25%)	26 (22%)
IV	2 (6%)	17 (20%)	19 (16%)

Table II.  Overall mean score of EORTC C30 and H&N35 and mean score dependent on site and treatment among 116 recurrence free head and neck cancer patients.

	Overall	Larynx	Pharynx	Oral cavity	Surgery	Radiotherapy
Global health status/QoL	66	65	59	74	77	62
Physical Function	82	79	79	88	90	79
Role Function	75	71	69	86	88	70
Emotional Function	75	70	70	84	84	71
Cognitive Function	82	82	76	87	88	80
Social Function	80	76	76	89	90	76
Fatigue	31	37	39	18	14	38
Nausea/vomiting	8	9	10	4	2	10
Pain	22	23	27	16	16	24
Dyspnoea	14	20	15	8	5	18
Insomnia	23	20	39	13	10	29
Appetite loss	23	23	35	12	9	29
Constipation	15	17	24	4	4	19
Diarrhoea	14	13	21	11	11	16
Financial problems	16	16	20	12	8	19
HN Pain	21	17	29	17	14	23
HN Swallowing	19	16	30	13	9	23
HN Senses	26	24	36	21	17	30
HN Speech	23	30	24	14	11	28
HN Social eating	21	14	35	17	12	25
HN Social contact	12	14	13	9	7	14
HN Sexuality	35	43	43	18	16	43
HN Teeth	30	29	47	17	12	37
HN Opening mouth	21	9	37	21	17	23
HN Dry mouth	51	44	70	43	39	56
HN Sticky saliva	40	38	58	25	20	48
HN Coughed	29	33	27	26	24	31
HN Felt ill	15	18	20	8	6	19
HN Pain killers	39	35	53	32	31	43
HN Nutritional supp.*	25	17	35	24	18	27
HN Feeding tube	10	5	24	3	0	13
HN Weight loss	21	23	21	18	9	26
HN Weight gain	26	31	32	16	9	33

*Nutritional supplement.

Table III.  Correlation coefficient between scales of EORTC C30 and H&N35 among 116 recurrence free head and neck cancer patients.

	QOL	PF	RF	EF	CF	SF	FA	NV	PA	HNPA	HNSW	HNSE	HNSP	HNSO	HNSC	HNSX
Global health status/QoL	1.00
Physical Function	0.67	1.00
Role Function	0.64	0.67	1.00
Emotional Function	0.71	0.50	0.53	1.00
Cognitive Function	0.50	0.58	0.59	0.59	1.00
Social Function	0.62	0.50	0.56	0.68	0.59	1.00
Fatigue	−0.75	−0.73	−0.70	−0.70	−0.62	−0.62	1.00
Nausea/vomiting	−0.45	−0.45	−0.33	−0.46	−0.40	−0.38	0.56	1.00
Pain	−0.61	−0.41	−0.49	−0.62	−0.45	−0.53	0.56	0.43	1.00
HN Pain	−0.49	−0.26	−0.38	−0.44	−0.37	−0.47	0.45	0.38	0.68	1.00
HN Swallowing	−0.49	−0.43	−0.44	−0.50	−0.39	−0.41	0.51	0.46	0.54	0.62	1.00
HN Senses	−0.42	−0.44	−0.45	−0.44	−0.50	−0.39	0.54	0.34	0.41	0.38	0.47	1.00
HN Speech	−0.45	−0.48	−0.54	−0.43	−0.34	−0.48	0.51	0.33	0.36	0.41	0.47	0.50	1.00
HN Social eating	−0.48	−0.46	−0.58	−0.55	−0.52	−0.51	0.53	0.42	0.53	0.59	0.76	0.60	0.50	1.00
HN Social contact	−0.48	−0.44	−0.60	−0.62	−0.45	−0.57	0.52	0.33	0.47	0.46	0.43	0.36	0.58	0.59	1.00
HN Sexuality	−0.52	−0.52	−0.52	−0.52	−0.57	−0.46	0.64	0.35	0.37	0.28	0.36	0.49	0.45	0.38	0.52	1.00

Abbreviations in the column headlines refer to the corresponding scale name in the rows. Absolute correlation coefficient ≥0.6 bold, ≥0.7 also underlined. All significant p < 0.0005

Table IV.  Internal Consistency of the multi item scales of EORTC C30 and H&N35 among 116 recurrence free head and neck cancer patients.

	Cronbachs α
Scale	Overall	Oral cavity	Pharynx	Larynx
Global Health/QoL	0.91	0.92	0.94	0.89
Physical function	0.86	0.75	0.89	0.87
Role function	0.90	0.94	0.85	0.90
Emotional function	0.85	0.79	0.66	0.93
Cognitive function	0.71	0.58	0.55	0.85
Social function	0.83	0.67	0.79	0.91
Fatigue	0.88	0.88	0.87	0.87
Nausea/ vomiting	0.75	0.29	0.77	0.81
Pain	0.84	0.87	0.84	0.83
HN Pain	0.84	0.83	0.83	0.84
HN Swallowing	0.82	0.79	0.81	0.85
HN Senses	0.83	0.92	0.83	0.78
HN Speech	0.82	0.80	0.87	0.80
HN Social eating	0.92	0.95	0.91	0.92
HN Social Contact	0.89	0.92	0.94	0.87
HN Sexuality	0.93	0.98	0.83	0.95

Figure 2.  Mean scores of issues from the EORTC C30 and H&N35 significantly dependent on tumour site in 83 patients after radiotherapy for cancer of the pharynx, larynx and oral cavity. “{”Indicate significant differences between single groups with post hoc testing correcting for multiple testing.

Figure 3.  Mean score of issues of EORTC C30 and H&N35 that were significantly dependent on tumour site in 45 stage I-II patients after radiotherapy for cancer of the pharynx, larynx and oral cavity. “{”Indicate significant differences between single groups with post hoc testing correcting for multiple testing.

Figure 4.  Mean HN Pain differ between groups with different time after therapy dependent on treatment modality. Results from a cross sectional study in 116 recurrence free oral cavity, pharyngeal and laryngeal cancer patients. Error bars represent±standard error.