Body image in head and neck cancer patients treated with radiotherapy: the impact of surgical procedures

Abstract

Background In this study, we aimed to investigate the impact of surgical procedures on the body image of head and neck cancer patients treated with radiotherapy and with or without radical surgery.MethodsA cross-sectional survey of 150 patients with head and neck cancer was conducted. Sixty patients had nasopharyngeal cancer treated with definitive radiotherapy without surgery, and 90 patients had oral cavity cancer treated with radical surgery plus adjuvant radiotherapy. All participants completed a 10-item Body Image Scale (BIS) questionnaire to assess body image dissatisfaction. Among all patients, the socio-demographic and clinical variables were age, gender, partnership, education, employment, and radical surgery. In surgically-treated patients, the clinical variables were facial skin sacrificed, mouth angle sacrificed, glossectomy, maxillectomy, and mandibulectomy. ANOVAs, t-tests, and multiple regressions were used to evaluate the relationships between these variables and BIS results.ResultsIn all patients, radical surgery was the strongest independent predictor of BIS scores. Surgically-treated patients had significantly worse BIS scores than the patients without surgery. In surgically-treated patients, facial skin sacrificed, mouth angle sacrificed, maxillectomy, and mandibulectomy were significantly associated with body image. According to multivariable analyses, inferior maxillectomy and segmental mandibulectomy were independent prognosticators of a poor BIS score in surgically-treated patients.ConclusionRadical surgery for head and neck cancer patients has a significant impact on their body image, especially for those undergoing facial bone destructive surgery.

Factors influencing body image in posttreatment oral cavity cancer patients

“…Our major finding is that OCC patients who received surgery were more likely to report negative overall body image. Most OCC patients with advanced‐stage cancer receive radical resection and reconstruction, and this may cause scars, blemishes, and deformities that contribute to a poor body image . Our findings suggest that assessment and care of these patients are important to help them cope with physical and psychological issues and with the challenge of a negative body image.…”

Association between Body Image Dissatisfaction and Self-Rated Health, as Mediated by Physical Activity and Eating Habits: Structural Equation Modelling in ELSA-Brasil

“…Body image dissatisfaction (BID) is a phenomenon resulting from issues connected with psychological and emotional factors, social standards and a distorted view of the body [ 1 ]. The BID concept is broad because it can refer to the body’s topography, a certain part of the body or its totality, or the absence or presence of a certain natural characteristic or acquired after some event (e.g., gestation, radiotherapy, mutilation [ 2 , 3 ]. However, in the literature, this term is more commonly related to body image, in the form of comparisons between the actual image and the desired image.…”

A Systematic Review of Patient‐Reported Outcome Measures Assessing Body Image Disturbance in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer

“…[16][17][18][19] Because BID is a critical psychosocial issue for patients with HNC, there has been a proliferation of studies addressing the topic in recent years. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26] These studies have contributed to an improved conceptual framework for understanding BID in patients with HNC, reported on the changes in the severity of BID over time, described risk factors for BID, and characterized different treatment strategies. However, the volume of recent studies, differences in study design, varied patient populations, and heterogeneity of BID assessment tools have made understanding BID in patients with HNC challenging.…”