Quality of life 2-10 years after combined treatment for advanced oral and oropharyngeal cancer

This study reports the findings of an evaluation of Quality of Life (QOL) in long-term survivors of advanced oral and oropharyngeal cancer treated with preoperative chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery (combined treatment = multimodal therapy). All patients had T2-T4 tumours and all received locoregional radical resection and simultaneous microvascular reconstruction. From 1990 to 1998, 181 patients have been treated at the University Hospital of Cranio-Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery in Vienna. 100 (55%) of these patients were alive and free of disease in 2000. Sixty-seven of them completed the EORTC questionnaires QLQ 30 and QLQ H&N 35. We found these questionnaires to be very good tools for determining QOL, which constitutes part of the therapeutic success. Patients tended to report good to very good QOL. A comparison between groups according to clinical data was conducted as well as a group comparison of patients who claimed especially high or low QOL in the questionnaires. It was found that combined treatment not only offers the best chances for survival, but also allows a subsequent QOL, that is comparable to other forms of therapy.