Quality of life after salvage surgery for extensively recurrent head and neck cancer patients: a prospective, observational, real-world study

Abstract Purpose Multiple studies on salvage surgery (SS) implied the efficacy but the estimate of quality of life (QOL) after SS was poorly analyzed. Our study aimed to examine the quality of life before and after salvage surgery using the validated instruments QLQ-H&N35 and UW-QOL and investigate the value of salvage surgery by quantifying survival outcomes. Materials and methods Among 21 patients, preoperative and postoperative QOL were accessed using QLQ-H&N35 and UW-QOL questionnaire. Patients’ demographic characteristics, history of treatment, recurrent tumor characteristics, salvage surgery details and follow-up date were abstracted from our prospective database. Statistical analysis methods included Wilcoxon signed-rank test, descriptive analysis and Kaplan-Meier method. Results The overall quality of life was significantly improved after salvage surgery. Pain was significantly relieved whilst diminished functions were hinted with significant differences in UW-QOL domains swallowing, chewing, speech, shoulder, taste, saliva and in QLQ-H&N35 domains swallowing, speech, social eating, senses, dry mouth, sticky saliva as p༜0.05. The median disease-free survival of whole 21 patients was 5 months (range 0-73) and the median overall survival was 13 months (range 1-73). Conclusions The quality of life after salvage surgery for extensively recurrent head and neck cancer is acceptable. Despite the dysfunctions such as dysphagia and dry mouth, it does relieve the pain and improve the short-term overall QOL of patients. Further studies on quality of life before and after salvage surgery in HNSCC are obviously needed. In the future, postoperative functional recovery training also needs attention during follow up.