FREQUENCY OF DYSPHAGIA AMONG HEAD AND NECK CANCER PATIENTS RECEIVING 3-D RADIOTHERAPY

Abstract

Head and neck cancers are ranked sixth among all cancers globally with reported new patients (630,000) identified per year. Males are more prone to head and neck cancers than females across the Pakistani population.

Objective:

In the current project, the goal was to determine the frequency of acute side effects in terms of dysphagia during and immediately post-irradiation period in patients receiving concurrent 3- dimensional radiation-therapy at Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Oncology (INMOL) Hospital, Lahore.

Study design:

It was a descriptive case series.

Material and Methods:

Current study was carried out on 106 enrolled patients from December 2019 to May 2020 at the Department of Radiation Oncology Inmol hospital following ethical approval. All patients received radiotherapy as per clinician advice and hospital protocol. All patients were evaluated at pre radiation time, at weekly intervals during treatment and at 11 weeks from 1st radiation fraction. Data was entered and analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS software, version 20). Chi-square and Fisher's exact test was applied as p-value ≤ 0.05 was considered significant.

Results:

In the present study, there was a gradual increase in grades of dysphagia among all patients after treatments till 7 weeks. After one month of post-treatment, all grades of dysphagia improved among all patients.

Conclusion:

Acute side effects like dysphagia occurred among all patients receiving 3-D Radiationtherapy with overall good the treatment response. No death was reported during the current study. Although, we concluded 3-D Radiation-therapy has a high incidence of treatment-related toxicities