Quality of life in patients with oropharyngeal carcinoma. Gender influences the subjective evaluation

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of patient characteristics and surgical interventions on quality of life (QoL) after primary surgery and postoperative irradiation in patients with oropharyngeal carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between January 1997 and February 2002, 169 patients with carcinoma of the oropharynx were treated with curative intent. In September 2002, a total of 88 disease-free survivors were identified and included in this study. A retrospective chart review was performed and patient responses to the SF-36 Health Survey, EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires were evaluated. The questionnaires were completed by 34 patients (39% response rate). RESULTS All patients were treated with primary surgery followed by postoperative irradiation. The median follow-up was 2.3 years (range 0.5-4.9 years). Using Bonferroni-Holm adjustment for alpha, gender was found to be an important factor in QoL. Females scored significantly worse than males in all three questionnaires. We could not identify other factors influencing QoL. CONCLUSION The impact of gender on QoL must be considered as very significant.