We identified a standard core set of patient-reported symptoms and health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) domains to be assessed in head and neck (H&N) cancer clinical trials. The core symptom and HRQOL domain scores were used to guide recommendations by a working group of experts as part of a National Cancer Institute Symptom Management and HRQOL Clinical Trials Planning Meeting. A PubMed search was conducted using the search terms of "health-related quality of life" and "head & neck cancer," limited to publications from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2010. Fifty-four articles were used to guide the choice of recommendations. Twenty-nine symptoms and nine domains were identified, from which 12 H&N-specific core symptoms and HRQOL domains were recommended: swallowing, oral pain, skin changes, dry mouth, dental health, opening mouth/trismus, taste, excess/thick mucous/saliva, shoulder disability/motion, voice/hoarseness, social domain, and functional domain. This core set of 12 H&N-specific, patient-reported symptoms and HRQOL domains should be assessed in future H&N cancer clinical trials.
ContributorsChera, B. S. Eisbruch, A. Murphy, B. A. Ridge, J. A. Gavin, P. Reeve, B. B. Bruner, D. W. Movsas, B.
Disease Category: Cancer, Ear, nose, & throat
Disease Name: Head and neck cancer
Age Range: 18 - 100
Sex: Either
Nature of Intervention: Not specified
- Clinical experts
- Patient/ support group representatives
- Systematic review of outcome measures/measurement instruments
- COS Patient Reported Outcomes
- Literature review
- Other
- Survey
- Consensus meeting
Other: teleconferences