Abstract

This study compared the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) outcomes for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) treated by step-and-shoot intensity-modulated radiotherapy (SaS-IMRT) versus helical tomotherapy (HT). Data from one-forty-two NPC patients consecutively treated at the same institute between March 2006 and December 2009 were collected and analysed. They received either SaS-IMRT (case number = 62) or HT (case number = 80) for their nasopharyngeal tumours and neck lymphatics. Health-related Quality of life was assessed by the European organization for research and treatment of cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 and the EORTC QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires at the time point of 6 months after RT. A two-tailed Wilcoxon matched pair signed-rank test was used to compare the mean scores between the two groups, and the linear regression model was applied for multivariate analysis. Patient characteristics were evenly distributed between the groups. Univariate analysis found that patients in the HT group had a significantly better HRQoL in the aspects of pain, swallowing, speech, social eating, teeth, sticky saliva, and feeling ill; and a marginal significance of fewer sensation changes in the HT group. Multivariate analysis further disclosed that patients with HT had significantly fewer complaints of swallowing, senses, and feeling ill.  Compared with SaS-IMRT, HT may provide a significantly better HRQoL in the aspects of swallowing, senses, and feeling ill. This could be explained by the further reduction of treatment-related toxicity via well-designed HT.

Key words: Health-related quality of life, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, intensity-modulated radiotherapy, helical tomotherapy, EORTC.