Background: Head and neck cancer is one of the leading cancers among Indian population. Early diagnosis and treatment is cornerstone for improving survival in any malignancy, any delay leads to advanced form of disease, leading to higher morbidity and mortality. Given the location, head and neck cancers are easily visible or palpable on clinical examination. In spite of this, many patients are diagnosed at advanced stage.Methods: A cross sectional observational study was conducted at a tertiary care center of western india including 156 newly diagnosed head and neck cancer patients. Delay in seeking medical attention was defined as time interval of more than 3 months from the first symptom recognition to the first medical consultation. Subjects were then divided into delay and non-delay group and compared to identify the factors associated with delay in seeking medical attention.Results: Delay in seeking medical consultation was seen in 109 (69.9%) patients. The factors found significantly associated with delay were older age (p<0.001), rural background (p<0.001), illiteracy (p<0.001), joint family (p<0.001), poor socioeconomic status (p<0.001), longer distance from hospital (p<0.001), tobacco chewing (p=0.018), insufficient knowledge (p<0.001) and fear (p=0.031) of the disease.Conclusions: Many of the identified factors for delay in seeking medical attention in head and neck cancer patients are amenable to improvement. Improving health coverage and awareness of available health services, specially in far rural areas could prevent delay in diagnosis and treatment and thus significantly reduce morbidity and mortality as well as burden on health system.
Background: The purpose of our study is to identify the incidence of hypothyroidism following radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients in Rajasthan India and to assess the time period for the development of hypothyroidism for early treatment to reduce hypothyroid related morbidity and mortality. Methods: A prospective study conducted in Department of Radiation Oncology, S.M.S Medical College and attached group of hospital, Jaipur, Rajasthan. with 50 patients of histopathologically proven head and neck cancer receiving external beam to whole neck on telecobalt. Results: The patients were followed up for a period of six months. 7 (14%) patients were found to have hypothyroidism which was strongly significant with the p value of 0.02. Conclusion: We concluded that thyroid function tests should be made routine prior RT and during follow up period as early as 6 months and carried out lifelong. Keywords: Thyroid function test, Head neck cancer, Follow-up.
Introduction The most common cancer of India is head and neck, and about 70% of them present in locally advanced or metastatic disease. Palliative radiotherapy is one of the commonly used treatments in such cases. A retrospective study on the outcomes and toxicity of palliative radiotherapy is studied at a tertiary centre. Materials and Methods In this study, 74 patients who underwent palliative radiotherapy at the tertiary centre between Nov 2017 and Oct 2019 were retrospectively analysed. The frequency of different presenting symptoms, radiotherapy regimens, their outcome in form of symptomatic relief and disease status along with toxicity was studied and analysed through the available records. Results We identified 74 eligible patients. The median age was 48years (range, 26–82). Oropharyngeal primary cancer was the most common primary site. The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status was 3 or more in 74.4% patients. The radiation regimen used were ranged from 8Gyin single fraction, 20Gy in 4 fractions, 20Gy in 5 fractions, 30Gy in 10 fractions and 60Gy in 30 fractions. 93.2% of them completed their treatment. Pain and swelling were the most common presenting symptoms and 90.6% of them had more than 50% relief, while 46.5% had complete or partial response to the treatment. Conclusion Palliative radiotherapy to the head and neck provides some symptomatic benefit in most patients, there are multiple dose fractionation regimens currently being used for palliative radiation treatment, and consideration should be given to higher dose palliative RT regimens in patients having good performance status to maximize locoregional control and minimize late toxicity, patient with poor performance status will benefit from a hypofractionated palliative radiation treatment.
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