Background:
The
tongue has an indispensable
role in
communication,
swallowing and
breathing.
Tongue cancer treatment involves direct resection of the
tumor and surrounding
tissue, which can limit many essential functions of the
tongue. There are few
patient-reported
quality of life studies involving
tongue cancer exclusively. There is also a lack of data on the outcomes of
quality of life regarding different reconstructive
methods, adjuvant nonsurgical
therapies and other predicting factors. Our objective is to assess the
quality of life,
functional status, and predicting factors in
patients with
tongue cancer up to one year after surgical resection. Material and
Methods:
Thirty-six
patients with
tongue cancer were prospectively identified between October of 2017 and January 2021.
Patients were examined before and one, three, six and twelve months after surgical resection with the validated
University of
Washington Quality of Life questionnaire (UW-QOL).
Data collection included
patient age,
sex,
TNM staging, size of resection,
neck dissection,
tracheostomy, reconstructive
method and adjuvant
therapies. Outcome scores were compared using the Friedman test. Multiple
linear regression analysis was used to identify the predictors of
quality of life and
functional status.
Results:
The use of UWQOL scores as dependent variables revealed the following predicting factors age,
tobacco use,
radiotherapy,
chemotherapy, reconstruction
method and
neck dissection.
Conclusions:
The most relevant findings in our study are that flap reconstruction becomes increasingly necessary when a
glossectomy resection is over 45 mm, in order to maintain
tongue function. We established that the reconstructive flap type does not influence
quality of life in the long term. Also, we have found that cervical sentinel node
biopsy provides better
quality of life over
neck dissection in the first 3 months after
surgery. (AU)