Detection of Depression with OncoFunction in Head and Neck Cancer Patients compared to standard population

Introduction Therapy of head and neck cancer regularly leads to severe functional and aesthetic limitations. Many problems are not sufficiently documented and treated in daily clinical practice. Depression has a high significance for the outcome of the patient, but assessment of depression is often not carried out using standardized questionnaires. This study is intended to show the relevance of depression in HNC patients compared to the normal population.

Material and Methods Depression was assessed during the regular tumor aftercare consultation using the "OncoFunction" aftercare module. In this module the depression screening questionnaire PHQ-9 is integrated. In total, 839 KHT patients could be included and compared with patients from the normal population (>5000).

Conclusions In all groups of age, there was a significant higher impairment regarding depressive symptoms in the group of HNC patients (6,28 vs. 3,05). Women were more affected than men (Mean 6,75 vs. 5,8). Patients younger than 65 years were more affected both in the group of men (6.4 vs. 5.2) and women (7.3 vs. 6.2).

Discussion HNC patients showed a higher incidence of depressive symptoms than the normal population. Nevertheless, this problem area is still underrepresented in therapy and aftercare. In particular, the negative influence of depression on tumor-specific and non-tumor-specific survival, which has already been shown in studies, requires the safe and early recognition and treatment of depressive symptoms.

Poster-PDF A-1450.PDF

Publication History

Article published online:
10 June 2020