gms | German Medical Science

85th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

28.05. - 01.06.2014, Dortmund

Evaluation of gender specific quality of life in patients with larynx carcinoma

Meeting Abstract

  • corresponding author Mamdoh Alqurashi - Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surger, Aachen, Germany
  • Thien An Duong Dinh - Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen
  • Martin Westhofen - Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. 85. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. Dortmund, 28.05.-01.06.2014. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2014. Doc14hnod175

doi: 10.3205/14hnod175, urn:nbn:de:0183-14hnod1754

Published: April 14, 2014

© 2014 Alqurashi et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

Text

Introduction: The evaluation of health-related quality of life (HRQL) is important to determine the impact of disease. Several studies showed that HRQL parameters are of prognostic value in patients with cancer as they increase the predictive accuracy of the survival prognoses. Our study examined the gender aspects in quality of life of patients with larynx carcinoma.

Method: Patients treated with larynx carcinoma were enrolled in the study. Clinical data was gathered from hospital records and comprised tumor stage, tumor localisation, primary therapy and presence of a tracheostoma.

The QLQ-C30 and the QLQ-H&N35 in german language were used to determine the scores in quality of life.

Results:Significant differences were found for patients that received radiotherapy in two functional scales and three symptom scales of the QLQ-C30. Further significant differences were reported for eight of the scales of the QLQ-H&N35. Concerning patient gender, female patients receiving radiotherapy clinically scored worse in almost all the scales of the QLQ-HN35 and in all the scales of the QLQ-C30. Male patients receiving radiotherapy showed statistically significant differences in six scales of the head and neck module (swallowing, senses, sexuality, feeling ill, pain killers and feeding tube) and three of the core module (physical functioning, appetite loss and fatigue)

Conclusion: Evaluation of quality of life in patients with head and neck cancer is of high relevance. Our study results showed a difference between female and male patients according to the side effects of radiotherapy. However additional studies are needed to emphasize our finding.

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