Assessment of quality of life in patients with laryngeal cancer: A review of articles

Abstract

This article presents a review of the medical literature published between 1994 and 2014 with the use of the PubMed database concerning quality-of-life instruments for head and neck cancer patients used to assess general well-being of patients with laryngeal cancer. The PubMed database was searched for articles containing the keywords "quality of life", "laryngeal neoplasm" and "questionnaires". The resulting articles were reviewed and analyzed. After the identifcation of questionnaires, an additional search was performed. The articles and questionnaires were described and analyzed. In 43 articles, the authors used questionnaires specifc to the head and neck regions in order to assess the quality of life in patients with laryngeal cancer. Four different questionnaires were identifed. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) questionnaire is most commonly used to assess the quality of life in patients with laryngeal cancer. Questionnaires are generally used in order to select from a range of different treatment methods. There are a few head and neck cancer-related quality-of-life instruments which are widely used to assess the quality of life in patients with laryngeal cancer, but they are not dedicated to that region of the body. Today, there is much more attention paid to the quality of life; therefore, there is a real need to develop specifc scales for different types of cancer.