The impact of palliative radiotherapy on health-related quality of life in patients with head and neck cancer - Results of a multicenter prospective cohort study.

Palliative radiotherapy for patients with head and neck cancer can be used to alleviate symptoms. Only a few studies have investigated its impact on patient-reported outcomes (PRO). Therefore, we conducted a prospective multicenter observational study. The primary objective was to assess changes in health-related quality of life (HrQoL) per PRO. Eligibility criteria included i.) head and neck cancer and ii.) palliative radiotherapy indicated (EQD From 06/2020 to 06/2022, 61 patients were screened and 21 patients were included. Due to death or decline in health-status, HrQoL data was available for 18 patients at the first fraction and for eight patients at t Despite low patient numbers and risk of selection bias, our study shows some evidence of a benefit from palliative radiotherapy for head and neck cancer as measured by PRO.German Clinical Trial Registry identifier: DRKS00021197.

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© 2023 The Author(s).

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The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: DK received honoraria from Merck Sharp & Dohme and Pfizer as well as research funding from Merck KGaA, outside of the submitted work. The remaining authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.