Reporting and assessment of speech therapy issues stemming from head and neck cancer treatment greatly varied between patients and their physicians, according to preliminary data presented at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium and reported in MedPage Today.
While oropharyngeal cancer patients reported significant voice and speech impairment up to two years following chemoradiation therapy, physicians reported significantly fewer incidences in their adverse events reports.
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Data on patients' experiences came from two questionnaires assessing their speech impairment: the Head and Neck Quality of Life and University of Washington Quality of Life.
According to the HNQOL questionnaire, 68 percent of respondents indicated initial impairment. Over the two-year surveying period, the percentage decreased steadily to about one third of its initial amount, ending at 24 percent after 24 months.
On the other hand, only seven percent of physicians reported their patients experienced voice and speech impairments after three months, five percent after six months and zero percent after that. In contrast, about half of patients were still reporting significant vocal impairments after six months, according to the report.
Jeffrey Vainshtein, MD, a researcher with the study, said the disconnect between the patient and physician reporting was surprising, but probably not unique to their study.
"I don't think it's unique to head and neck cancer. I don't think it's unique to our study. I don't think it's unique to medicine," said Dr. Vainshtein in the report. "I think physicians tend to underestimate the effect of their treatment — whatever it is — on our patients."
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