Global quality of life during the acute toxicity phase of multimodality treatment for patients with head and neck cancer : Can we identify patients most at risk of profound quality of life decline?

Abstract

Treatment intensification has improved some outcome parameters for patients with head and neck cancer. Because tumors, treatment and adverse effects are localized in the region of most sensual tissues and organs, quality of life is often times highly reduced in these patients. This work reports about a prospective study yielding to picture the quality of life development in these patients and to identify pretreatment risk factors for a profound quality of life detoriation.