Assessment of quality of life of oral cancer survivors compared with Spanish population norms

This study evaluated the quality of life (QL) of patients who survived oral cancer more than 5 years after treatment, using the Short-Form 36 questionnaire (SF-36), and assessed the impact of factors influencing QL compared with the Spanish population norms. 60 oral cancer patients (65.41 years; 49 males) with cancer-free survival after surgery of >5 years were enrolled. The outcomes of every dimension of the SF-36 questionnaire in every patient were compared with those of a reference Spanish population. Females had statistically significant negative differences in the dimensions of role-emotional, social functioning and vitality. Patients under 65 years had statistically significant negative differences in the dimensions of physical functioning and general health. In the other variables analysed the differences between groups were only clinically relevant. The QL of patients with oral cancer who survive more than 5 years, when assessed with the SF-36 questionnaire, presented similar values to those of the general population, even exceeding these reference values in some dimensions. It is necessary to evaluate QL in the long-term since patients may need a long time to recover from the disease, and to complement QL assessment with other specific questionnaires.