Radiotherapy-induced dysphagia and its impact on quality of life in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

To investigate the swallowing status and its impact on quality of life (QOL) in patients who underwent radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

In this study, 334 patients with NPC who underwent radiotherapy were reviewed. Clinical characteristics, videofluoroscopic swallowing studies (VFSSs), and scores of the World Health Organization quality of life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) were retrospectively analyzed for all patients.

In this study, 143 of 334 (42.8%) patients showed dysphagia. The nodular stage N3 of NPC, neoadjuvant and concurrent chemotherapy were clinical predictors for dysphagia. VFSS of patients with dysphagia showed a high incidence of vallecular residue (100%), apraxia (99%), premature bolus loss (98%), bolus formation (98%), pyriform sinus residue (95%), and mastication (94%). Moreover, WHOQOL-BREF scores for the physical health, psychological, and environment domains were lower of the dysphagia group than those of the control group (P < 0.01). Videofluoroscopic dysphagia scale scores showed significant negative correlations with scores for the physical health (R = −0.66, P < 0.01), psychological (R = −0.70, P < 0.01), social relationships (R = −0.56, P < 0.01), and environment (R = −0.61, P < 0.01) domains of WHOQOL-BREF.

Radiotherapy-induced dysphagia is common in NPC patients and is correlated with poor quality of life. Patients, caregivers, and clinical physicians should be aware of these adverse effects and provide timely treatment for radiotherapy-induced dysphagia in collaboration with cross-disciplinary colleagues.