Predictors of acute throat or esophageal patient reported pain during radiation therapy for head and neck cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Background and purpose

Acute pain during weekly radiotherapy (RT) to the head and neck is not well characterized. We studied dose-volume metrics and clinical variables that are plausibly associated with throat or esophageal pain as measured with a weekly questionnaire during RT.

Materials and methods

We prospectively collected weekly patient-reported outcomes from 122 head and neck cancer patients during RT. The pain score for each question consisted of a four-level scale: none (0), mild (1), moderate (2), and severe (3). Univariate and multivariate ordinal logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate associations between both esophageal and throat pain and clinical as well as dosimetric variables.

Results

In multivariate analysis, age was significantly

SUBMITTER: Gay HA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6134163 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature