Longitudinal Analysis of Morbidity and Mortality Conference Data for Head and Neck Cancer Patients

2013 ◽  
Vol 149 (2_suppl) ◽  
pp. P69-P69
Author(s):  
Stephen Y. Lai ◽  
Richa Rashmi ◽  
Carol M. Lewis ◽  
Amy C. Hessel ◽  
Paul W. Gidley ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Nikesh Agarwal ◽  
Daulat Singh ◽  
Manoj Verma ◽  
Shantunu Sharma ◽  
R. K. Spartacus ◽  
...  

Background: Head and neck cancer is one of the leading cancers among Indian population. Early diagnosis and treatment is cornerstone for improving survival in any malignancy, any delay leads to advanced form of disease, leading to higher morbidity and mortality. Given the location, head and neck cancers are easily visible or palpable on clinical examination. In spite of this, many patients are diagnosed at advanced stage.Methods: A cross sectional observational study was conducted at a tertiary care center of western india including 156 newly diagnosed head and neck cancer patients. Delay in seeking medical attention was defined as time interval of more than 3 months from the first symptom recognition to the first medical consultation. Subjects were then divided into delay and non-delay group and compared to identify the factors associated with delay in seeking medical attention.Results: Delay in seeking medical consultation was seen in 109 (69.9%) patients. The factors found significantly associated with delay were older age (p<0.001), rural background (p<0.001), illiteracy (p<0.001), joint family (p<0.001), poor socioeconomic status (p<0.001), longer distance from hospital (p<0.001), tobacco chewing (p=0.018), insufficient knowledge (p<0.001) and fear (p=0.031) of the disease.Conclusions: Many of the identified factors for delay in seeking medical attention in head and neck cancer patients are amenable to improvement. Improving health coverage and awareness of available health services, specially in far rural areas could prevent delay in diagnosis and treatment and thus significantly reduce morbidity and mortality as well as burden on health system.


Author(s):  
Leonid Bardenshtein ◽  
Valeriy Leontiev ◽  
Aleksey Drobyshev ◽  
Aleksandr Tsimbalistov ◽  
Nikolay Malginov ◽  
...  

The review focuses on depressive disorders in cancer patients. The article summarizes the findings of domestic and foreign studies on depression prevalence, clinical symptoms and treatment in head and neck cancer patients. Early detection of affective disorder and timely administration of antipsychotic drug treatment is shown to be important for this patient category.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Piyush Kumar ◽  
Bhavya P Pateneedi ◽  
Dharam P Singh ◽  
Arvind K Chauhan

INTRODUCTION: Head and neck cancer patients are frequently malnourished at the time of diagnosis and prior to the beginning of treatment. Deterioration of the nutritional status results in an increase in chemo radiotherapy related toxicity and this may increase the prolonged treatment time, which has been associated with poor clinical outcome. The present study aims to do nutritional assessment before and after chemo radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The present study was undertaken at the Department of Radiation Oncology, Shri Ram Murti Smarak Institute of Medical Sciences, Bareilly. In this study, 50 patients of Head and neck tumours were enrolled and their nutrition was assessed before and after chemoradiotherapy. Nutrition assessment was done using different laboratory parameters like haemoglobin, total leukocyte count, blood urea, serum creatinine and serum bilirubin. Anthropometric parameters used are Body mass index, Skin fold thickness, and Mid-arm circumference. Nutritional risk indicator and PG-SGA score is measured before and after chemoradiotherapy. All the parameters were assessed and analysed using different statistical tests- Chi-square test, Fisher Exact test and paired t test.RESULTS: Haemoglobin decrease was statistically significant during treatment (p less than 0.001) and the decrease in total leukocyte count during treatment was showing trend towards significance (p value-0.056). There was deterioration in other parameters like blood urea, serum creatinine and serum bilirubin but was not statistically significant. Anthropometric parameters- Body mass index, mid-arm circumference and skin fold thickness and percent body fat showed a significant change (p less than 0.00001). Nutritional risk indicator and PG-SGA class has decreased for majority of patients during treatment, the change is statistically significant (p less than 0.00001 and p=0.0251) respectively.CONCLUSION: The nutrition has important role to play in the management of head and neck cancers by chemo radiotherapy. It helps to reduce the complications and improve the tolerance of chemo radiotherapy, thus avoiding treatment breaks which may lead to failure of treatment.


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