Assessment of quality of life in oral cancer

ABSTRACT

Quality of life (QL) in oral cancer patients has become one of the most important parameters to consider in thediagnosis and post-treatment follow-up. The purpose of this article has been to review the papers published that studythe QL in oral cancer patients, the different QL questionnaires used, the clinical results obtained, and the systematicrevisions available in the indexed literature for the last 10 years.The term QL appears as a keyword in an increasing number of articles throughout the past 10 years; however, fewstudies focus on oral cancer. Most of them assess all head and neck cancers, which conform to a heterogeneous groupwith several different features depending on location (oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx, hypopharynx, nasopharynx andsalivary glands). Most studies evaluate QL in short periods of time, normally within the first year after the diagnosis.Series do not discern between different therapeutic options, and they generally center on Northern European orNorthern American populations. There are few instruments translated and validated into Spanish that measure QL,a fundamental characteristic to link QL to own patients’ socio-cultural parameters. Data related with QL are mostlyrelated to patient (age, sex, co-morbidity), tumour (location, size), and treatment (surgical treatment, radiotherapyassociation, reconstruction, cervical dissection, and/or feeding tube). Nowadays QL’s assessment is considered anessential component of an oral cancer patient as well as the survival, morbidity and years free of disease. Althoughmany aspects related to QL in oral cancer patients have been published throughout the past 10 years, more systematicresearch is needed to be able to apply it on a daily basis (AU)