WEDNESDAY, Jan. 18, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- Poorer quality of life a year after treatment appears to predict diminished long-term survival for head and neck cancer patients, new research shows.
Researchers in England and New Zealand studied a group of 200 head and neck cancer patients.
The patients filled out a quality-of-life questionnaire when they were diagnosed with cancer and another one 12 months after treatment. After 10 years, 136 (68 percent) of the patients had died, 48 were alive, and the status of 16 patients was unknown.
The study found that patients with poorer quality of life a year after their cancer treatment -- as well as those who had head and neck pain -- were more likely to be dead after 10 years.
The researchers cautioned, though, that more research needs to be done to determine whether other, unrelated illnesses play a role in this association.
The study appears in the January Archives of Otolaryngology.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about head and neck cancer.
