Support Needs and Quality of Life in Oral Cancer

Methods:  Six electronic data bases were searched using a combination of key word and Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) terms, yielding 790 potentially relevant articles. Forty-five articles were identified as meeting the inclusion criteria. Articles were included if they described support needs influencing quality of life in oral cancer patients, were original research and were published in English. Findings were synthesized based on the prevalence of the support need(s) identified and their relative impact on QoL.  

Results:  Support needs identified with a high prevalence and high impact on QoL included coping with the burden of radiotherapy in both psychosocial and physical aspects, dry mouth and oral dysfunction issues. Issues of depression, anxiety and malnutrition were identified as having a low prevalence, but high impact on QoL.

Conclusions: The support needs of oral cancer patients are varied and highly subjective, reflecting the complex nature of the disease and its treatment. Reflective of their high impact on QoL, future research should investigate the psychological and social support needs of oral cancer patients, in addition to physical support needs throughout treatment.