Abstract
Background. Head and neck cancer patients treated with chemoradiation have difficulty eating a normal diet. This study was designed to characterize eating ability over 12 months after chemoradiation treatment. Analyses take patient dropout into account. Methods: Two hundred fifty-five patients with head and neck cancer treated with chemoradiation were followed for 12 months. Eating ability was analyzed using generalized linear model methods that accounted for non-ignorable dropout. Results. Eating ability was compromised immediately after treatment and improved over 12 months to near pretreatment levels. Ability to eat at most 50% of the diet orally did not return to baseline levels (p < .05). However, the percent of patients eating a normal diet did return to baseline levels. Accounting for dropout modified the results, but the pattern of significance was similar. Conclusions. Treatment of head and neck cancer with chemoradiation has a significant effect on eating ability, which improves after 12 months after treatment.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1034-1041 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Head and Neck |
Volume | 25 |
Issue number | 12 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2003 |
Keywords
- Chemoradiation
- Dropout
- Dysphagia
- Generalized linear models
- Head and neck cancer
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Otorhinolaryngology