Table 2.
Univariate associations between QOL and selected patient and tumor characteristics in OSCC patients, University of Washington Affiliated Hospitals, Seattle, WA, 2003–2010
| Characteristic | Pre-treatment QOL | Change in QOL from pre-treatment to one year post-treatment* |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | Median QOL score (IQR) |
p-value | n | Median QOL score (IQR) |
p-value | |
| Age | ||||||
| <60 | 102 | 79 (68–88) | 0.117 | 36 | −8 (−18 to 5) | 0.556 |
| ≥60 | 96 | 83 (70–93) | 36 | −2 (−15 to 3) | ||
| Sex | ||||||
| M | 137 | 82 (68–89) | 0.452 | 50 | −2 (−18 to 4) | 0.737 |
| F | 61 | 79 (68–88) | 22 | −3 (−13 to 6) | ||
| Race | ||||||
| White | 179 | 82 (69–90) | 0.115 | 68 | −3 (−18 to 4) | 0.439 |
| Non-white | 19 | 74 (58–88) | 4 | 1 (−8 to 7) | ||
| Tumor site | ||||||
| Oral | 141 | 80 (65–89) | 0.098 | 48 | −2 (−12 to 4) | 0.191 |
| Oropharynx | 57 | 84 (75–90) | 24 | −9 (−23 to 5) | ||
| T stage | 0.899 | |||||
| 1 | 70 | 87 (78–94) | <0.001 | 35 | −2 (−13 to 5) | |
| 2 | 59 | 81 (70–88) | 25 | −5 (−19 to 4) | ||
| 3–4 | 69 | 72 (60–85) | 12 | −3 (−13 to 4) | ||
| N stage | 0.058 | |||||
| 0 | 95 | 85 (73–92) | 0.047 | 38 | −1 (−9 to 6) | |
| 1 | 25 | 79 (68–85) | 9 | −9 (−16 to 10) | ||
| 2–3 | 78 | 76 (65–89) | 25 | −10 (−24 to 0) | ||
| Cigarette smoking | ||||||
| Never | 51 | 87 (72–93) | 0.010 | 20 | −3 (−9 to 6) | 0.808 |
| Former | 59 | 83 (73–93) | 22 | 0 (−19 to 3) | ||
| Current | 88 | 77 (64–85) | 30 | −3 (−19 to 6) | ||
| Alcohol drinking | ||||||
| Never | 18 | 88 (72–95) | 0.137 | 5 | −3 (−16 to −2) | 0.264 |
| Former | 55 | 83 (68–90) | 21 | 0 (−5 to 10) | ||
| 0–14 drinks/week | 62 | 83 (73–89) | 22 | −9 (−19 to 3) | ||
| >14 drinks/week | 63 | 76 (65–87) | 24 | −3 (−16 to 4) | ||
| Comorbidity** | 0.320 | |||||
| 0 | 42 | 85 (68–93) | 0.323 | 14 | −9 (−20 to −2) | |
| 1 | 85 | 82 (70–89) | 34 | 0 (−17 to 5) | ||
| 2–3 | 71 | 79 (64–87) | 24 | −2 (−15 to 7) | ||
| Multimodality therapy | ||||||
| No | 32 | 0 (−9 to 8) | 0.007 | |||
| Yes | 38 | −8 (−21 to 1) | ||||
| Surgery to primary site | ||||||
| No | 7 | −1 (−18 to 8) | 0.732 | |||
| Yes | 65 | −3 (−16 to 3) | ||||
| Chemotherapy | ||||||
| No | 48 | −1 (−12 to 6) | 0.043 | |||
| Yes | 22 | −13 (−24 to 2) | ||||
| Radiation therapy | ||||||
| No | 31 | 0 (−9 to 8) | 0.004 | |||
| Yes | 39 | −10 (−21 to 1) | ||||
| Radiation dose | ||||||
| <65 Gy | 16 | −4 (−19 to 1) | 0.272 | |||
| ≥65 Gy | 17 | −14 (−25 to −3) | ||||
Statistically significant differences in QOL are in bold font.
*
One year post-treatment: data collected 9–15 months after treatment started
**
Comorbidity assessed with ACE-27, with higher scores indicating greater comorbidity.
Abbreviations: ACE-27: Adult Comorbidity Evaluation-27; HPV: Human Papillomavirus; IQR: Interquartile range; OSCC: Oral cavity and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma; QOL: Quality of life