Patient - Reported Taste Changes in Head and Neck cancer
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A Preliminary Study of Patient-Reported Taste Changes as a Result of Oncology Treatment in Head and Neck Cancer
IRAS ID
193490
Contact name
Guet Ching / GC Lee
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 27 days
Research summary
Head and neck cancer ( HNC ) has a world-wide prevalence. There is reportedly more than 550,000 cases with approximately 300,000 deaths each year.Oncology treatment consisting of radiotherapy ( RT ) alone or chemotherapy (CT) or a combined modality treatment i.e. chemo-radiotherapy ( CRT ) are primary treatments for this disease. Such treatment modalities however result in significant side-effects e.g. dysphagia, xerostomia, taste changes, mucositis, malnutrition, negative effects on quality of life, fear of recurrence of cancer and problems with dentition.
Taste changes are ranked eleventh out of 45 major concerns by HNC patients. In a study of dysphagia – related issues following RT or CRT, taste was found to be one of the major side – effects immediately post – treatment and persisted into one year after treatment. Although taste changes have a huge impact on quality of life
( QOL ) e.g. malnutrition, reduced enjoyment of eating as a result of food aversions due to taste change and reduced social interaction, there is limited patient reported taste change questionnaires which comprehensively evaluates the severity of taste alterations, its pattern of recovery and its impact on QOL. This study is the first step towards item generation for such a questionnaire. Patients will be recruited from the HNC caseload of the main researcher at Darlington Memorial Hospital (DMH) and they will be invited to attend a focus group or a semi structured interview. Potential participants will be given an option of attending a focus group or a face to face semi-structured interview. The group will lasts between 1 to 1.5 hours and the interview may be at least an hour. The focus group will be moderated by a speech and language therapy colleague who is not familiar with working with HNC. Two focus groups will be held with two different sets of patients. The main researcher will facilitate the semi-structured interviews.REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 1 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NE/0111
Date of REC Opinion
16 May 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion