Abstract

Quality of Life among Group of Iraqi Patients with Oral Cancer after Surgical Treatment at Different Time Intervals

Introduction: Relating to the oral and maxillofacial region, there is an increase in the incidence of malignant tumors. The surgical removal of neoplasm with or without the adjuvant therapy is the most preferred treatment. With advances in diagnosis and treatment, the survival rate of the patients has increased. The qualities of survivors become an important issue. Aim of the study: The purpose of current study was to evaluate the patient’s quality of life with oral cancer (OC) after surgical treatment at different time intervals. Patients and methods: Total 50 patients were included in the study with oral cancer after surgical treatment, with an age ranged from (41-77) years. All patients were evaluated for their quality of life using the University of Washington quality of life questionnaire (UW-QOL), which was filled after 7 days, 1 month, 3 months and six months after the surgical treatment of oral cancer. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 20. Results: After the surgical removal of oral cancer, individual domains and subjective complaints deteriorated, which was improved gradually over the time intervals. Pain, mood, and anxiety rated were the most important domains while reaction, activity appearance, shoulder, taste, chewing, saliva, speech, and swallowing were considered to be less important. Conclusion: The University of Washington quality of life questionnaire was a practical and the easiest questionnaire for the assessment of the quality of life of the patients and the subjective complaints. An improvement in the overall and health-related quality of life was necessary to be observed following the surgical treatment for patients with oral cancer.

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