Long-term quality of life for surgical and nonsurgical treatment of head and neck cancer.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the long-term, health-related quality-of-life outcomes in patients with advanced head and neck cancer (HNC) treated with surgery and postoperative radiation therapy (SRT) or concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy (CRT).

DESIGN: Matched-pair study comparing patients with advanced HNC treated with SRT or CRT at least 12 months after treatment. Patients completed 2 validated surveys addressing HNC-specific outcomes and depressive symptoms and provided information on employment and tobacco and alcohol use. Results for the 2 groups were compared using paired-sample t test and chi2 analysis.

SETTING: University-based study.

PATIENTS: Patients with stage III or IV squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx, hypopharynx, and larynx who underwent SRT or received CRT.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Head and neck cancer-specific health-related quality of life from the Head and Neck Cancer Inventory and level of depressive symptoms from the Beck Depression Inventory.

RESULTS: The matching process resulted in 27 patients in each treatment group. The HNC-specific domain scores (with higher scores representing better outcomes) for CRT vs SRT were eating, 37.8 vs 40.8 (P = .69); speech, 65.1 vs 56.0 (P = .23); aesthetics, 80.3 vs 69.2 (P = .14); and social disruption, 69.7 vs 70.6 (P = .90). Overall health-related quality of life was 64.0 with SRT and 55.0 with CRT (P = .142). For the Beck Depression Inventory (with higher scores representing worse outcomes), patients who underwent SRT had a mean score of 9.6 compared with 11.6 for patients who received CRT (P = .42).

CONCLUSION: As nonsurgical means of treating HNC have become more aggressive and surgical techniques have become more focused on function preservation and rehabilitation, the overall health-related quality of life resulting from these different approaches is similar.