Purpose

This study aimed to evaluate patterns of symptoms, physical function and quality of life (QoL) among patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) prior to, 3–9 days post-surgery, and one month post-surgery.

Methods

A prospective, repeated-measures design with consecutively-identified sampling was used to recruit HNC patients undergoing surgical treatment. Data collected included demographic and clinical characteristics, symptoms by M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory-Head and Neck Module-Chinese version (MDASI-H&N–C), physical function and QoL by Function Subscales of European Cancer Research Treatment Organization Quality of Life Core Scale (EORTC QLQ C30).

Results

105 HNC patients suffered multiple symptoms prior to and after surgery. Pain, difficulty with voice/speech, disturbed sleep and problems with mucus (30.48%~91.43%) were the most prevalent symptoms prior to and post-surgery. Numbers of symptoms as well as specific symptoms, such as fatigue, dry mouth, problems with mucus, pain and disturbed sleep, were significantly associated with poor physical function (p < 0.05). Tracheostomy, feeding tube and age were also linked with poor physical function and poor QoL (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Findings of our study underscore the importance of managing symptoms in HNC patients to ensure patients' physical function and QoL prior to and after surgical treatment. Further research should focus on developing targeted interventions for symptoms that are linked to HNC patients’ poor physical function and QoL.

中文翻译：

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头颈部癌手术治疗前后的症状模式，身体机能和生活质量：一项前瞻性研究。

目的

这项研究旨在评估头颈癌（HNC）患者在手术前，手术后3–9天和手术后一个月的症状，身体功能和生活质量（QoL）的模式。

方法

采用前瞻性，重复测量的设计，采用连续识别的样本，招募接受手术治疗的HNC患者。收集的数据包括人口统计学和临床​​特征，MD安德森症状-头颈模块中文版本（MDASI-H＆N–C）的症状，欧洲癌症研究治疗组织生命质量核心量表（EORTC）的功能子量表，身体功能和QoL QLQ C30）。

结果

105例HNC患者在手术前后遭受多种症状。术前和术后最常见的症状是疼痛，语音/语音困难，睡眠不安和粘液问题（30.48％〜91.43％）。症状的数量以及特定的症状，例如疲劳，口干，粘液问题，疼痛和睡眠不安，与身体机能差显着相关（p  <0.05）。气管切开术，饲管和年龄也与身体机能差和生活质量差有关（p  <0.05）。

结论

我们的研究结果强调了在HNC患者中管理症状以确保患者在手术治疗前后的身体功能和生活质量的重要性。进一步的研究应集中于针对与HNC患者身体机能差和QoL相关的症状开发针对性的干预措施。