Symptom patterns, physical function and quality of life among head and neck cancer patients prior to and after surgical treatment: A prospective study.

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.

Study on the Salivary Microbial Alteration of Men With Head and Neck Cancer and Its Relationship With Symptoms in Southwest China.

This study explored the association between oral microbes and head and neck cancer (HNC) as well as symptoms related to patients with HNC before surgical treatment. Fifty-six patients with HNC and 64 matched healthy controls were recruited from West China hospital in Southwest China. The demographic, clinical, and symptom data were collected. Salivary samples were collected to determine the microbial characteristics using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Patients with HNC presented increased Capnocytophaga abundances. The oral microbial markers as Capnocytophaga (area under the curve=0.81) achieved a high classification power between the HNC patients and healthy controls. Moreover, using Capnocytophaga in conjunction with symptom of voice/speech difficulty achieved an overall predicting accuracy of 92.5% comparing with using Capnocytophaga alone (79.2% accuracy) in distinguishing the HNC patients from healthy controls. Salivary microbial profiles and HNC symptoms may be potential biomarkers for HNC screening.