Grant: Catalyst Grant: Biomedical & Clinical Approaches to Improving Quality of Life

After treatment of head and neck cancer, patients face many functional challenges that may lead to social isolation and loss of employment, and threaten their quality of life. These challenges are very apparent in people with mouth, tongue, and throat cancers, as treatment involves structures needed for normal speech and swallowing. The loss of communication can lead to loss of gainful employment and reliance on social welfare systems, impacting patients' ability to care for themselves and their families. Most importantly, speaking with clarity and ease is crucial in our ability to connect with people around us and maintain and establish new relationships. When swallowing functions are compromised, there is a distressing impact on quality of life because eating and drinking are so highly integrated within our everyday socialization. Modern cancer treatments have improved the potential for rehabilitation of these functional deficits. Theoretically, this should relieve the psychological burden of disordered speech and swallowing that patients have endured in the past, and facilitate their return to work and normal social life. However, the effects of different medical treatments and rehabilitation modalities on speech production, swallowing function, and economic outcomes have not been studied in large numbers or by standard methods. As a result, no reliable information is available regarding which current treatment method is most beneficial for maintaining function and adequate quality of life within an economically-sound model. The creation of an international research network to study these outcomes and to make recommendations regarding treatment is of utmost importance to the care of patients with head and neck cancer globally.