Treatment Outcomes and Quality of Life in Oropharyngeal Cancer after Surgery-based versus Radiation-based Treatment.
OBJECTIVE
Advances in reconstruction and conservative surgery and the importance of quality of life (QOL) encouraged this reevaluation of surgery-based treatments for oropharyngeal cancer. We tried to compare treatment outcome and QOL after surgery-based versus radiation-based treatment in oropharyngeal cancer.


METHODS
The 133 eligible patients were divided into surgery-based and radiotherapy (RT)-based treatment groups. Medical records were reviewed, and EORTC QLQ-C30 and HN65 questionnaires were completed for survivors. Three-year overall survivals, disease-free survivals, locoregional control rates, and QOL scores were compared between the two groups.


RESULTS
Demographic data and overall stages were not significantly different between the two groups, and all survival rates were non-significantly different, either. The scores for most QOL items were equivalent, however, for a few items, scores were significantly better in surgery-based group.


CONCLUSIONS
The surgery-based group achieved equivalent treatment outcomes and slightly better QOL scores than the RT-based group. The results of this study suggest that surgery could still be considered as a first-line therapy for oropharyngeal cancer.
Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Tae Wook
TW
Kim
Hye-Youn
HY
Youm
Hayoung
H
Byun
Young-Ik
YI
Son
Chung-Hwan
CH
Baek