UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Objective: Head and Neck cancer (HNC) can cause profound effects on a patient's quality of life (QoL). The aim of the study was to assess the psychosocial effects on the quality of life in adults with HNC and any gender variations with predictive factors that influence QoL.

Methods: A 3 months descriptive prospective study of the QOL of 50 patients with HNC who were on treatment for at least a period of four weeks who consented to the study were administered a questionnaire adapted from the Multidimensional University of Michigan HNQoL instrument. Also included in the questionnaire was the Karnofsky Performance Status Scale (KPS).

Results: There were 32 males and 18 females, (M: F = 2:1) with an overall mean age of 47.74 ±16.89 years (range 16 - 83 yrs). Females had higher mean scores than males in all the domains, global and general questions except in pain domain. Men had higher scores in overall satisfaction with HNC care in the hospital. Pain had the lowest overall mean score of 52.79 amongst the four domains while the overall bother was the lowest (46.81) amongst the global questions. The pain domain correlated significantly with Eating (p = 0.001), Emotion (p = 0.014) and stage of disease (p = 0.050). Pain relief in patients with HNC requires more attention by the caregiver in order to improve their quality of life.