EATING ABILITY IN HEAD AND NECK CANCER PATIENTS AFTER TREATMENT WITH CHEMORADIATION: A 12-MONTH FOLLOW-UP STUDY ACCOUNTING FOR DROPOUT

Abstract: Background. Head and neck cancer patients treated with chemoradiation have difficulty eating a normal diet. This study was designed to characterize eating ability over 12 months after chemoradiation treatment. Analyses take patient dropout into account. Methods: Two hundred fifty-five patients with head and neck cancer treated with chemoradiation were followed for 12 months. Eating ability was analyzed using generalized linear model meth-ods that accounted for non-ignorable dropout. Results. Eating ability was compromised immediately after treatment and improved over 12 months to near pretreatment levels. Ability to eat at most 50 % of the diet orally did not return to baseline levels (p <.05). However, the percent of patients eating a normal diet did return to baseline levels. Accounting for dropout modified the results, but the pattern of significance was similar. Conclusions. Treatment of head and neck cancer with che-moradiation has a significant effect on eating ability, which im-proves after 12 months after treatment. © 2003 Wiley Periodi