ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S1187

Clinical - Head & neck

ESTRO 2024

337

Digital Poster

Swallowing outcomes following definitive (chemo)radiotherapy for hypopharyngeal cancer

Deborah Ganderton 1 , Christopher Hughes 2 , Alexander Gate 3 , Lip Wai Lee 2

1 The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Speech and Language Therapy, Manchester, United Kingdom. 2 The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Clinical Oncology, Manchester, United Kingdom. 3 The University of Manchester, Medicine, Manchester, United Kingdom

Purpose/Objective:

Head and neck malignancies arising in the hypopharynx (pyriform sinuses or posterior pharyngeal wall) are uncommon and carry the worst survival rates of all head and neck cancers (HNC) [1]. Surgical management of hypopharyngeal cancer (HPC) typically involves removal of the voice box and the formation of a permanent tracheal stoma for breathing [2], with associated impact on communication, social interaction and aspects of daily living [3]. Due to the functional morbidity of this approach, moves towards organ preservation treatment protocols mean that (chemo)radiotherapy (C)RT) is now the most prevalent treatment option for the majority of HPCs [4]. Clinical findings indicate that patients receiving (C)RT for HPC may be at risk of adverse swallowing outcomes. Long term dysphagia following treatment is associated with higher risk of pneumonia, reduced oral intake, weight loss, malnutrition, prolonged tube feeding, and reduced quality of life (QOL) [5, 6]. As HPC is an uncommon cancer with poor overall survival, reports of functional swallowing outcomes following non-surgical management remain limited.

This study describes swallowing outcomes for a cohort of patients receiving definitive (C)RT for HPC.

Material/Methods:

Patients treated with (C)RT with curative intent for HPC at a single institution from February 2020 to February 2023 were included. Disease control was assessed via axial imaging 12 weeks post-treatment and at later time-points if clinically indicated.

Patients who remained disease-free at >6 months post-treatment were contacted retrospectively to collect swallow outcome data. Feeding tube status during treatment was taken from clinical records.

Outcome measures collected:

-Presence of feeding tube

-MD Anderson Dysphagia Inventory (MDADI): a patient-reported outcome measure of swallowing-related QOL with scores normalised from 20 (worst patient-reported function) to 100 (best patient-reported function).

-PSS-HN Normalcy of Diet and Eating in Public: clinician rated assessment tools that describe swallow performance utilising ordinal scales (from 0 to 100) with higher scores indicating better performance.