Roles of speech therapists in the rehabilitation for patients with head and neck cancer

Abstract

Swallowing dysfunction is one of the major complications in patients with head and neck cancers treated by surgery and/or chemoradiotherapy. To address this issue, at the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kobe University Hospital, speech therapists (STs) have been playing a key role in the comprehensive management of patients with head and neck cancers. STs meet the patients before the initiation of surgery or chemoradiotherapy and give them orientation so that they can understand the whole process of treatment and rehabilitation in advance. Swallowing and speech rehabilitation after surgery or during concurrent chemoradiotherapy are performed by STs under the instruction of head and neck surgeons. STs also give advice to head and neck surgeons with regard to the form and amount of foods and drinks for respective patients from the viewpoint of rehabilitation as well as nutrition. In 2010, the Japanese public health insurance was revised to cover for the first time medical fees for rehabilitation for patients with cancer. Thus, the practice of rehabilitation for patients with head and neck cancers is expected to spread throughout Japan in the next several years. In this article, we introduce our multidisciplinary and comprehensive management for the complications of patients with head and neck cancers treated with surgery and/or chemoradiotherapy to encourage the rehabilitation of such patients.