Quality of life and voice in patients treated for early laryngeal cancer

Objectives. To evaluate quality of life and voice in patients previously treated for early laryngeal cancer versus healthy controls and to assess correlations between demographic and cancer characteristics and posttreatment quality of life and voice.
Material and methods. A total of 49 patients diagnosed with early (Tis-T2N0) laryngeal carcinoma, treated by radiotherapy or endoscopic surgery at least 6 months before, who were alive and free of recurrence formed study group. Postservice with questionnaires was accomplished. Quality of life was evaluated using Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Health Survey (SF-36), Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) Scale, voice quality – by Voice Handicap Index (VHI). Normative data were obtained from database or concurrently assessed healthy adult subjects.
Results. Hoarseness was the most frequent complain. Majority of patients consider their health as fair (69.4%), one third – good or excellent. The means of summary of SF-36 scores for physical and mental health differ significantly from normative age-matched population (P<0.001). Emotional distress on HAD scale was found in 40.8% of patients vs. 17.0% of healthy controls. Majority (87.8%) of patients rated their voice abnormal; vast majority of them had slight to moderate dysfunction. Mean VHI scores were slight elevated for patients and differed significantly from healthy ones. Correlation analysis revealed a significant relationship between patients’ physical health and some demographic-clinic factors.
Conclusions. Quality of life in patients previously treated for early laryngeal cancer was worse than healthy subjects. Psychiatric morbidity was indicated in around of one-third of the patients. Voice changes were reported in most patients with low handicap level. Physical health perception was better for patients with higher grade of cancer differentiation, not using alcohol, and treated first.