Illness cognitions in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: predicting quality of life outcome.

Goals Of Work: This paper presents an observational study of the longitudinal effects of cancer treatment on quality of life (QoL) in patients treated for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and evaluated the contribution of patients' baseline illness cognitions to the prediction of QoL 2 years after diagnosis.

Patients And Methods: One hundred seventy-seven patients eligible for primary treatment for HNSCC completed the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised at baseline and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire-30 at baseline, at 1-year and 2-year follow-ups.

Main Results: Compared to baseline, patients reported better emotional functioning at both follow-ups (p < 0.

Quality of life and illness perceptions in patients with recently diagnosed head and neck cancer.

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate which illness perceptions of patients recently diagnosed with head and neck cancer explain variance in their quality of life (QOL) to identify potential targets for interventions aimed at improving QOL.

Methods: Sixty-eight patients (mainly with stage III and IV disease) completed the Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ-R) and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30).

Results: Pretreatment cross-sectional results from this prospective study show that, after controlling for age and comorbidity, illness perceptions were significantly related to the QLQ-C30 physical, role, emotional, cognitive, social functioning, and global health subscales.