Abstract CN65
Background
Oral cancer is one of the most common malignancies in both developed and developing world. Surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy are the usual treatments. Especially side effects of radiotherapy have an impact in quality of life even years later. The purpose of this study was to synthesize current evidence for supportive care needs of patients living with and beyond oral cancer after receiving radiotherapy.
Methods
This scoping review was conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. Two electronic databases (Pubmed and Scopus) were searched to identify studies employing qualitative and/or quantitative methods. Pre-specified selection criteria were applied to all records published between 2010-2020. Methodological quality evaluation was conducted using the “STANDARD QUALITY ASSESSMENT CRITERIA for Evaluating Primary Research Papers from a Variety of Fields“ tool. Findings were integrated in narrative synthesis.
Results
Of 1816 references initially retrieved, 35 articles were finally included. Although many of them did not primarily research support needs, were used as they indirectly analyzed patient’s problems. Needs were classified into six domains based on Supportive Care Framework by Fitch: physical (85,7%), psychological/emotional (40%), social (40%) and information needs (28,6%) were the most frequently explored. Financial (5,7%) and spiritual needs (2,85%) were only rarely explored. Among physical needs, swallowing and dry mouth (54,2%), speech (48,57%), feeding needs (45,7%), mastication, taste and pain (34,2%), mucositis (25,71%) and trismus (22,8%) were the most common problems. Fatigue (17,14%), osteoradionecrosis (14,28%) and loss of appetite (11,4%) were addressed in ≥4 studies. Skin toxicity, sexuality problems (8,6%), cough (5,7%), olfactory disorders and insomnia (2,8%) were addressed in <4 studies.
Conclusions
Humans with oral cancer have to cope with a variety of needs during and after radiotherapy. Supportive care should be introduced before the beginning of radiotherapy through survivorship or death. Future studies will shed more light on the influence of supportive care in quality of life of these people.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
A. Theodorelou.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.