Symptom patterns, physical function and quality of life among head and neck cancer patients prior to and after surgical treatment: A prospective study

•We explored the relationships between symptoms, PF and QoL among Chinese HNC patients with surgical treatment.•HNC patients who reported pain had poorer PF than patients without pain.•HNC patients with feeding tube had 9 times of odds for poorer PF comparing patients without feeding tube.•With one symptom increased, HNC patients would have 38.1% chance to have poorer QOL.