Quality of life in patients treated for head and neck cancer

In this paper we have studied the quality of life of patients that underwent treatment for an early laryngeal carcinoma in comparison to others with an advanced head and neck cancer. We have studied 62 patients (T1N0M0, T2N0M0) with laryngeal carcinoma diagnosed between 1990 and 1998. We have applied the European EORTC QOL C-30 questionnaire, and more specifically its head and neck module (H&N 35). The results were compared with a heterogeneous group of 48 patients with different degrees of head and neck cancers. The quality of life of our patients who were treated for an early glottic cancer was better in many functional scales of the EORTC and in many specific symptom scales of the H&N 35, but not in global cancer symptoms.