Quality of life after surgical treatment for tongue cancer

Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the quality -of -life (QoL) among patients who underwent surgical treatment for squamous carcinoma of the oral tongue at the 12 de Octubre Hospital, Madrid, Spain. Methods: QoL of patients suffering from tongue cancer was evaluated using patients' response to the Spanish version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) and Head and neck cancer -35 (QLQ-H&N35). Sixty patients were included in a cross-sectional observational study. These patients were in line with the inclusion criteria submitted and were surgically treated between 2004 and 2014. They were classified according to sex, age, disease stage and whether or not they had received radiotherapy (RT) treatment. Results: Global EORTC QLQ-C30, social functioning, QoL scale and role scores for different stages showed significant differences (P=0.041). QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires also found differences for swallowing, senses, speech, social eating, and social contact. Radiated patients had a significantly greater impairment in all symptoms at the EORTC QLQ-H&N35 scales. Dental problems (P=0.028), trismus (P<0.001) and sticky saliva (P=0.021) were also frequent in these patients. No significant results were found for age groups. Women scored higher than men for pain, dry mouth, sticky saliva and fatigue. Conclusions: Questionnaires such as H&N35 and QLQ-C30 serve as vital instruments in quantitatively measuring QoL. Adjuvant RT and advanced disease stage were shown to negatively affect QoL scores. No differences for age were found, whereas higher scores for pain, dry mouth, sticky saliva and fatigue were found for women compared to men.