鼻咽癌病患放射治療後生活品質之研究

Purpose : The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality of life of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma after treatment with radiotherapy.Materials and Methods : From March 2001 to November 2002, three hundred and thirty-two nasopharyngeal cancer patients in two institutions were invited to participation. Health- related quality of life was assessed 3 months or later after the completion of the treatment by means of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Core Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ C-30) and the EORTC head and neck cancer-specific questionnaire (QLQ H&N-35). Results : Pain (r = -0.194***), weight loss (r = -0.165**), dry mouth (r = -0.155**), sexuality (r = -0.138*), sticky saliva (r = -0.130*), social eating (r = -0.108*), gain weight (r = 0.107*) and problem of open mouth (r = 0.105*) revealed significance with changes over time by simple correlation analysis. In order to understand the effects of non-linear simple correlation, the periods between completion of radiotherapy and patients filling in the questionnaire were divided to 4 groups: 3-6 months, 6-12 months, 1-5 years and more than 5 years. All items but three (problem of open mouth, administration of painkiller and gain weight) showed statistical significance by one-way ANOVA analysis. Hence, all items and symptoms changing over time were divided into four types: increasing, decreasing, U type, and W wave type. Conclusions : Our study suggest that detailed information about the changes over time may help us in communication with patients and in design of intervention studies focusing on improvement of the supportive care and rehabilitation of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma after radiotherapy.