Quality of life as predictor of survival:A prospective study on patients treated with combined surgery and radiotherapy for advanced oral and oropharyngeal cancer

Background and purpose: The realtion between health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and survival was investigated at baseline and 6 months in 80 patients with advanced oral or oropharyngeal cancer after microvascular reconstructive surgery and (almost all) adjuvant radiotherapy.Materials and methods: Multivariate Cox regression analyses of overall and disease-specific survival were performed including sciodemographic (age, gender, marital status, comorbidity), and clinical (tumor stage and site, radical surgical, metastasis, radiotherapy) pharameters, and HRQOL (EORTC QLQ-C30 global quality of life scale).Results: before treatment, younger age and having a partner were predictors of disease-specific survival; younger age predicted overall survival. At 6 months post-treatment, disease-specific and overall survival was predicted by (deterioration of) global quality of life solely. Global health-related quality of life after treatment was mainly influenced by emotional functioning.Conclusion: Deterioration of global quality of life after treatment is an independent predictor of survival in patients with advanced oral or oropharyngeal cancer. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Radiotherapy and Oncology 97 (2010) 258-262