Predictive value of health-related quality of life on radiotherapy-related toxicities in patients with head and neck cancer.

Purpose: Little is known about whether baseline health-related quality of life (HRQoL) scores also could predict occurrence radiotherapy-related toxicities, which we aim to assess in this study.

Methods: This study analyzed data from 200 patients enrolled in randomized study investigating the utility of HRQoL. HRQOL was assessed at baseline and during follow up using QLQ-C30 questionnaire and major toxicity was considered as adverse event ≥ 3 according to NCI-CTCAE classification.

Randomized Trial Assessing the Impact of Routine Assessment of Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer.

The impact of routine assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) on satisfaction with care and the HRQoL of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) treated with radiotherapy was assessed. Patients with HNC were randomly assigned to two arms, with stratification on sex, cancer localization, and stage of the disease. In the intervention arm, the patients completed the EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-H&N35 questionnaires first before randomization, then before each medical appointment during radiotherapy (7 weeks), and then every 3 months until 1 year and at 2 years thereafter.

Chemotherapy use in end-of-life digestive cancer patients: a retrospective AGEO observational study.

Background: The use of chemotherapy (CT) near the end-of-life (EOL) is an important issue in oncology since it could degrade quality of life. CT near EOL is still poorly studied, with no dedicated study in gastrointestinal (GI) cancer patients.

Aim: To analyze in GI cancer patients the factors associated with the use of CT within 3- and 1-month before patients' death.

Predictive Value of Neutrophils Count for Local Tumor Control After Chemoradiotherapy in Patients With Locally Advanced Pancreatic Carcinoma.

Purpose: Baseline neutrophil count may predict overall survival (OS) in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC).

Methods And Materials: The international multicenter randomized LAP07 phase 3 trial has enrolled 442 patients with LAPC. We analyzed the prognostic value of both baseline neutrophilia (neutrophil count >7 g/L) and elevated or increasing neutrophil count as (1) neutrophilia or (2) increased absolute neutrophil count after induction chemotherapy versus baseline for OS, progression-free survival, and local control (LC).

Longitudinal analysis of health-related quality of life in cancer clinical trials: methods and interpretation of results.

Purpose: Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is assessed by self-administered questionnaires throughout the care process. Classically, two longitudinal statistical approaches were mainly used to study HRQoL: linear mixed models (LMM) or time-to-event models for time to deterioration/time until definitive deterioration (TTD/TUDD). Recently, an alternative strategy based on generalized linear mixed models for categorical data has also been proposed: the longitudinal partial credit model (LPCM).