ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S1444

Clinical - Head & neck

ESTRO 2024

3006

Digital Poster

Clinical markers of altered Body image in Patients with Head and Neck cancers

Ahmed Jribi, Nejla Fourati, Fatm Dhouib, Wafa Mnejja, Jamel Daoud

Habib Bourguiba Hospital Faculty of Medicine University of Sfax, Radiotherapy Department, Sfax, Tunisia

Purpose/Objective:

Head and neck cancers (HNC) are a heterogeneous group of cancers that often involve heavy treatments affecting the body image of these patients. However, clinical markers of altered body image in patients with HNC are rarely studied and often discordant between studies.

Objective: To study the clinical markers of body image alteration in patients with HNC interviewed at different times during cancer treatment.

Material/Methods:

This was a mono-centric descriptive cohort study assessing body image in adult patients with HNC using the Body Image Scale (BIS) and investigating the correlation of this score with various qualitative parameters using the Mann Whitney test and with age using the Spearman test. Forty-six patients were included. The mean age was 52 years old [21-75], with a sex ratio of 2.3. Most patients were married (40 patients; 87%) with urban origin (31 patients; 67.4%), and with poor educational level (28 patients; 60.8%). Nasopharyngeal carcinoma and stage (III) were the most common (28 patients (61%) and 38 patients (82.6%) respectively). The questionnaire was led during treatment for 29 patients (63%) and before treatment for 15 patients (32.6%). Treatment included surgery for 7 patients (15.2%), chemotherapy for 27 patients (58.7%), radiotherapy for 29 patients (63%) and multimodal therapy for 18 patients (39.1%). Twelve patients (26.1%) reported mirror avoidance, feelings of reduced attractiveness, and being a victim of mutilating treatment. Thirteen patients (28.3%) expressed social avoidance, discomfort with their partner, and lack of self-confidence. Sixteen patients felt depressed (34.8%); yet 36 patients felt optimistic (78.3%). Forty-four patients claimed to have a supportive family (95.7%), 26 patients (59.1%) complained of negative occupational impact, and 20 patients used camouflage objects (43.5%). Twelve patients (26.1%) wished to have their body image treated. Patients had functional symptoms related to cancer or treatment in 87% of cases (40 patients).

Results: