Quality of life experienced by patients receiving radiation treatment for cancers of the head and neck

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore the quality of life fo r 58 outpatients during and after a course of radiation treatment for cance rs of the head and neck. Data were collected at three time points: T1 (firs t week of treatment), T2 (last week of treatment), and T3 (1 month after tr eatment). Patients completed two measures that assessed physical, emotional , functional, and social aspects of well-being: the Functional Assessment o f Cancer Therapy: Head and Neck (FACT-H&N) and the Hospital Anxiety and Dep ression Scale (HADS). Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance a nd post hoc t tests were performed to assess changes in quality of life ove r the three time points. Results indicated overall increased levels of phys ical and functional symptoms, head and neck specific concerns, and depressi on between T1 and T2. However, except for depression, there was some improv ement between scores on each of these measures of physical and functional w ell-being between T2 and T3, although this improvement was not to the pretr eatment level. The FACT subscales assessing social and emotional well-being , and the HADS subscale showed no significant changes across time. Implicat ions of this study relate to the ongoing need for interventions to assist p atients once they have completed the radiation treatment course, and to imp roved assessment in some areas of emotional distress.