Abstract
The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of late toxicity of concurrent chemoradiotherapy on the quality of life, especially regarding patients with laryngeal or pharyngeal carcinoma, treated with chemoradiotherapy. Patients answered a questionnaire on the Quality of Life-Radiation Therapy Instrument (QOL-RTI) for Japanese, more than 1 year after treatment. We compared the QOL scores after treatment and determined the present statuses based on the scores before treatment and the statuses before chemoradiotherapy. As a result, no significant difference was found in the QOL scores before and after treatment. In a study of each question, only the QOL score on the volume of saliva decreased significantly after treatment. In comparison with patients treated only by radio-therapy, there was no significant decrease in the QOL in patients treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy. Furthermore, we analyzed the factors associated with the changes in the QOL scores due to the above treatment. Factors such as age, T and N stage, the radiation response, and adjuvant chemotherapy, were not associated with any changes in the QOL. However, the group which was evaluated more that 2 years after the treatment had significantly higher QOL scores than the group evaluated less than 2 years after the treatment. However, regarding the volume of saliva, no difference was founding either group. The QOL scores regarding the ingestion of food and swallowing, therefore were found to not decrease during the late period after chemoradiotherapy. However, xerostomia was found to linger due to the after effects of this treatment.
