Quality of Life and Voice in Patients with Laryngeal - a Post-treatment Comparision of Laryngectomy Vs Radiotherapy.

Two groups of laryngeal cancer patients were studied. Fourteen laryngectomized patients speaking with tracheoesophageal prosthesis (TEP) were matched with fourteen irradiated laryngeal speakers with preserved larynx. To measure patients« QL we used; the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Core Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30), the EORTC Head and Neck module (EORTC QLQ H&N 35), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD) and a studyspecific questionnaire. For the perceptual speech evaluation we used visual analog scales. The perceptual ratings of speech intelligibility, voice quality and speech acceptability showed a significant difference between the treatment groups. Both the patients treated with radiotheraphy and the listeners rated the irradiated laryngeal voices higher than the tracheoesophageal speech. The laryngectomized patients scored significantly better than the patients treated with radical radiotheraphy on the question about hoarseness. No other significant difference was found for the QL functions and symptoms. We conclude that, when patients treated with laryngectomy as salvage surgery were compared to patients treated with radiotherapy, only small differences were found in QL and in patients« perceptual voiceand speech self-evaluiation.