Quality of life in patients with laryngeal and laryngopharyngeal cancer in short-and long-term follow-up

The study included 96 patients with morphologically verified squamous cell carcinoma of larynx and laryngopharynx T2-4N0-2M0 stage of the tumor process who were administered two courses of neoadjuvant chemotherapy at 3-4 weeks interval by the scheme paclitaxel 175 mg/m2, carboplatin AUC-6 plus radiotherapy in the regimen of multifractionated radiation dose of 1.3 Gy twice a day at 4 hours interval. In case of complete regression of the tumor (n=33) radiotherapy was performed to the accumulated radical dose of 65 isoGy. The next stage in partial regression and stabilization of the process (n=63) was radical surgical intervention. EORTC QLQ-30 and QLQ - H&N35 questionnaires were used to estimate quality of life of the patients. Quality of life as a criterion for the assessment of treatment efficacy was correlated with a significant increase in the 2-year overall and disease-free survival in patients who received chemoradiotherapy compared to those who underwent combined modality treatment including surgery. Changes in the values of EORTC QLQ-30 and QLQ - H & N35 modules clearly indicate the relationship between the quality of life measures and treatment methods.