Acoustic analysis of changes in articulation proficiency in patients with advanced head and neck cancer treated with chemoradiotherapy.

Objectives: Our aim was to characterize articulation proficiency and differences between tumor sites before and after chemoradiotherapy for advanced head and neck cancer with the help of acoustic measures. Our further goal was to improve objective speech measures and gain insight into muscle functioning before and after treatment.

Methods: In 34 patients with laryngeal or hypopharyngeal, nasal or nasopharyngeal, or oral or oropharyngeal cancer, we acoustically analyzed nasality, vowel space, precision, and strength of articulation in 12 speech sounds (/a/, /i/, /u/, /p/, /s/, /z/, /1/, /t/, /tj/, /k/, /x/, /r/) before treatment and 10 weeks and 1 year after treatment.

Two-year results of a prospective preventive swallowing rehabilitation trial in patients treated with chemoradiation for advanced head and neck cancer.

The objective of the study was the assessment of the results of a prospective clinical trial with two preventive swallowing rehabilitation programs on the long-term side effects of chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) in advanced head and neck cancer patients. The study cohort consisted of 29 patients, randomized in two exercise groups: a standard (S) group receiving routine swallowing exercises (N = 14), and an experimental (E) group receiving swallowing exercises based on the TheraBite® Jaw Motion Rehabilitation System™ (N = 15). Assessment of functional changes was carried out with multidimensional outcome measures (e.

Dysphagia and trismus after concomitant chemo-Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (chemo-IMRT) in advanced head and neck cancer; dose-effect relationships for swallowing and mastication structures.

Background And Purpose: Prospective assessment of dysphagia and trismus in chemo-IMRT head and neck cancer patients in relation to dose-parameters of structures involved in swallowing and mastication.

Material And Methods: Assessment of 55 patients before, 10-weeks (N=49) and 1-year post-treatment (N=37). Calculation of dose-volume parameters for swallowing (inferior (IC), middle (MC), and superior constrictors (SC)), and mastication structures (e.

Pre- and posttreatment voice and speech outcomes in patients with advanced head and neck cancer treated with chemoradiotherapy: expert listeners' and patient's perception.

Objectives: Perceptual judgments and patients' perception of voice and speech after concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for advanced head and neck cancer.

Study Design: Prospective clinical trial.

Methods: A standard Dutch text and a diadochokinetic task were recorded.

Functional outcomes after radiotherapy or laser surgery in early glottic carcinoma: a systematic review.

Background: Early glottic carcinoma is treated with laser surgery or radiotherapy, but which treatment has better functional outcomes is unclear. This systematic review compared functional outcomes (voice, swallowing, quality of life [QOL]) in more extended T1a and limited T2 tumors (1) between treatments and (2) between greater and lesser laser resections.

Methods: A systematic literature search covered relevant databases from 1990 to 2009, combining all patient/problem, intervention, comparison, outcome (PICO) keyword variations.

A randomized preventive rehabilitation trial in advanced head and neck cancer patients treated with chemoradiotherapy: feasibility, compliance, and short-term effects.

The aim of this study was to assess the effect of (preventive) rehabilitation on swallowing and mouth opening after concomitant chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Forty-nine patients with advanced oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx and larynx, or nasopharynx cancer treated with CCRT were randomized into a standard (S) or an experimental (E) preventive rehabilitation arm. Structured multidimensional assessment (i.

Voice and speech outcomes of chemoradiation for advanced head and neck cancer: a systematic review.

Purpose of this review is to systematically assess the effects on voice and speech of advanced head and neck cancer and its treatment by means of chemoradiotherapy (CRT). The databases Medline, Embase and Cochrane were searched (1991-2009) for terms head and neck cancer, chemoradiation, voice and speech rehabilitation. Twenty articles met the inclusion criteria, whereof 14 reported on voice outcomes and 10 on speech.

Pretreatment organ function in patients with advanced head and neck cancer: clinical outcome measures and patients' views.

Background: Aim of this study is to thoroughly assess pretreatment organ function in advanced head and neck cancer through various clinical outcome measures and patients' views.

Methods: A comprehensive, multidimensional assessment was used, that included quality of life, swallowing, mouth opening, and weight changes. Fifty-five patients with stage III-IV disease were entered in this study prior to organ preserving (chemoradiation) treatment.

Clinical phase I/feasibility study of the next generation indwelling Provox voice prosthesis (Provox Vega).

Conclusions: Provox Vega prostheses demonstrate good short-term feasibility, and their optimized airflow-resistance design offers laryngectomy patients indwelling voice prostheses with more choices in outer diameters without sacrificing (too) much in voice quality.

Objectives: Technological progress enables improvement of in vitro airflow characteristics of voice prostheses and design of voice prostheses with smaller outer diameters. This could potentially improve voice quality in users of Provox2, and avoid diminished voice quality in users of prostheses with smaller outer diameters.

Voice profile after type I or II laser chordectomies for T1a glottic carcinoma.

Background: Can a "typical" voice in terms of auditory perception be defined after type I or II chordectomy? Do other parameters in a multidimensional voice protocol correlate to this perceptual profile?

Methods: Voice evaluation using a multidimensional voice protocol including perceptual (GRBAS; grade, roughness, breathiness, asthenia, strain scale), acoustic, aerodynamic, stroboscopic analyses, and self-assessment (Voice Handicap Index [VHI]) in a cohort of 37 consecutive patients with T1a midcord glottic carcinoma.

Results: Sixty-five percent of patients had dysphonia, dominated by mild breathiness (mean grade 1.4).

Functional outcomes and rehabilitation strategies in patients treated with chemoradiotherapy for advanced head and neck cancer: a systematic review.

Organ preservation with radiotherapy and concomitant chemotherapy has become an accepted treatment modality in advanced head and neck cancer. Unfortunately, organ preservation is not synonymous with function preservation. The aim of this review was to systematically assess the effects of the disease and chemoradiotherapy (CRT) on functions such as swallowing, mouth opening, nutrition, pain and quality of life in patients with head and neck cancer.

Voice outcome in T1a midcord glottic carcinoma: laser surgery vs radiotherapy.

Objective: To compare voice quality after radiotherapy or endoscopic laser surgery in patients with similar T1a midcord glottic carcinomas according to a validated multidimensional protocol.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: University cancer referral center.