Depression in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer – a Longitudinal Analysis

Background: The influence of depression on a reduced quality of life and worsened survival has been proven. Nevertheless, depression is a relevant problem in the group and its dynamics have not been sufficiently investigated. The aim of this study was to observe depressive symptoms over the course of the disease and to compare them with the normal population.

Methods: With the Patient-Reported-Outcome-Measurement (PROM) software solution "OncoFunction" 240 patients were analyzed over 4 follow-up times within our regular tumor follow-up. The evaluated screening PHQ-9 was used to determine the depressiveness.

Results: On average, patients with HNC show higher depressive values than the normal population (PHQ-9 value: 3.30). At time t1, PHQ-9 was 6.4 on average, with the highest values in patients with carcinomas of the oral cavity (p<0.05). During follow-up, the average score of all tumor patients decreased significantly to an average of 5.4 at t2 and 4.8 at t3 and increased slightly to 5.1 at t4. The average score was 5.3 for oral cavity and laryngeal carcinomas and 5.4 for oropharyngeal carcinomas. Approximately 20 %  of the patients showed a moderate or severe degree of depressive symptoms at t4 (values =10).

Conclusion: Initially, patients seem to have the highest risk of depression, probably due to therapy-associated side effects. It is noticeable that after about 2 years, 20 %  of patients still show moderate to severe depressive symptoms. Routine screening via PROMs is essential.

Poster-PDF A-1612.pdf

Publication History

Article published online:
13 May 2021