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Cancer Control Research

Abstract

DESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Description) Cancer of the head and neck region can have profound effects on the quality of a person's life. This project will utilize objective measures of swallowing, voice, xerostomia, oral health, and musculoskeletal condition, linking these measures with subjective quality of life and psychologic distress instruments. This project will evaluate the quality of life in HNC survivors five years after diagnosis in order to explore address the following issues: 1) The relationship between subjective and objective measures of quality of life; 2. The finding that self-reported symptoms in survivors are linked to recurrence fear; 3) The nature of this linkage: Does the fear lead to a sensitivity to symptoms? Or do symptoms remind patients of their cancer? 4) The relationship between advanced initial stage and increased residual objective and subjective quality-of-life impairments; 5)The relationship between surgical treatment and increased residual objective and subjective quality-of-life impairments; 6) The prevalence of current tobacco use in survivors. The study will evaluate a cohort of approximately 150 five-year disease-free survivors of head and neck cancer. The survivors will undergo a battery of tests including validated quality-of-life instruments (UWQOL, FACT, FACT-H&N, PSS-HN), a measure of personality, attitude and depression (MBHI), some locally prepared and piloted questions, and several objective measures of speech, swallowing, shoulder/neck mobility, and saliva flow. The results of the subjective and objective data will be correlated looking for areas of future intervention.