Impact of a telehealth intervention on quality of life and symptom distress in patients with head and neck cancer

Background: Patients undergoing treatment for head and neck cancer commonly experience signi?cant changes in quality of life (QoL) and levels of symptom distress. It is not known if a telehealth intervention would mitigate these changes. Objective: To evaluate the impact of a telehealth intervention on QoL and symptom burden in patients undergoing initial treatment for head and neck cancers. Methods: A randomized clinical trial comparing the impact on QoL and symptom distress of telehealth intervention and standard care was conducted with 80 patients (45 treatment, 35 control) who had been diagnosed with head or neck cancer and were receiving 1 or more treatment modalities. Treatment group participants responded daily to symptom management algorithms using a simple telehealth messaging device. QoL was evaluated by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Head and Neck Scale (FACTHN) and symptom burden by the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (MSAS). Control group participants completed assessments while they received routine care. Results: In the posttreatment phase, the telehealth participants had signi?cantly better scores than the controls for physical well-being (20.6 vs 17.0, P = .02) and trial outcome index (59.9 vs. 50.2, P = .04) on the FACT-HN, and total scores on the MSAS (0.9 vs. 1.2, P = .04). Limitations: The moderate sample size of 80 patients limits the power to measure more subtle impacts of the intervention. Conclusions: Using telehealth to provide support to patients with head and neck cancer during the acute phase of treatment improved some aspects of posttreatment QoL and symptom burden.