Head and neck cancer patients treated with concomitant chemoradiotherapy involving the oral cavity and oropharynx: is another choice possible than prophylactic gastrostomy?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Recent recommendations on cachexia highlight, in head and neck cancers, the heterogeneity of studies, focusing on weight loss and sequelae including swallowing disorders. The current national guidelines emphasize that, in cases of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (cCRT) involving the oral cavity and oropharynx, prophylactic gastrostomy placement should be carried out systematically. We review why this technique is particularly relevant in this specific location for the feasibility of cCRT. RECENT FINDINGS: A randomized trial is underway on swallowing disorders and the quality of life of patients after prophylactic vs. reactive gastrostomy in advanced oropharyngeal cancer patients treated with CRT. Concurrently, recent literature reviews emphasize the importance of the cumulative dose of chemotherapy for local control and survival. In cases of cCRT involving the oral cavity or the oropharynx, nutritional support could have a beneficial or detrimental impact on chemotherapy. SUMMARY: Specifically for patients treated with cCRT involving the oral cavity and oropharynx, prophylactic gastrostomy would be able to fulfill the three objectives of local control, survival, and quality of life, minimizing complications related to nutritional support. Studies need to be more homogeneous. In clinical practice, nutrition should primarily assist in carrying out cancer treatment when survival is the main goal.

Efficacy of a physiotherapy, yoga and patient education programme for patients with breast cancer and hormone therapy-induced pain: a multicentre randomised study protocol (SKYPE 2).

INTRODUCTION: Osteoarticular pain is experienced by approximately 50% of patients with breast cancer under hormone therapy and can increase the risk of therapy discontinuation. Among complementary therapies, yoga has shown efficacy regarding reduction of fatigue, anxiety, pain due to hormone therapy and inflammation. Personalised patient education programmes increase engagement and motivation, and induce effective behavioural changes. The SKYPE programme, an integrated intervention combining physiotherapy, yoga and patient education, showed promising efficacy on hormone therapy-induced pain in a previous pilot study. In this study, we hypothesised that using theory-based patient education favour learning and practising 15 min of at-home yoga every day to decrease hormone therapy-induced pain. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This multicentre randomised study will assess the efficacy of the SKYPE programme on pain reduction compared with standard care in patients with breast cancer reporting osteoarticular pain due to hormone therapy. Main secondary objectives will describe pain evolution and characteristics, patient adhesion to yoga sessions and home practice, forward flexibility, quality of life, fatigue, anxiety and compliance to hormone therapy. Patients in the intervention group will participate in 1 weekly educational yoga session of 90 min for 6 weeks, supervised by physiotherapists (period 1). They will also perform daily at-home 15 min yoga sessions for 12 weeks, the total duration of the intervention (periods 1 and 2). Pain will be evaluated during physiotherapy check-ups at baseline (T0), at 6 weeks (T1) and at 12 weeks (T2). ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study was approved by the ethics committee (CPP Ile de France 8 on 22 June 2020). The results will be disseminated to patients and healthcare professionals, and published in a peer-reviewed journal. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT04457895.

Trismus Occurrence and Link With Radiotherapy Doses in Head and Neck Cancer Patients Treated With Chemoradiotherapy.

BACKGROUND: Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for head and neck cancer (HNC) induces side-effects, including trismus, which impairs quality of life by causing difficulty to eat, speak, and maintain good oral hygiene, and by altering social life. Given the wide variation of reported trismus prevalence and as a first mandatory step for the preventive physiotherapy OPEN program (NCT03979924) this study evaluated trismus occurrence and its link with radiation doses. METHODS: Study population was non-larynx HNC patients with epidermoid carcinoma treated with CRT, with or without surgery. A physiotherapist measured maximal interincisal distance before, during and after CRT, at 10 weeks and 6 months. The proportion of patients with trismus (with a 95% confidence interval) was estimated. Irradiation doses were analyzed between patients with and without trismus using non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis test. RESULTS: We included 45 patients (77.8% male), median age 61 years (range 41-77). The proportion of trismus at baseline was 24.4%, 26.8% at 10 weeks and 37.1% at 6 months. During radiotherapy, it was 27.9% at week 3 and increased to 41.9% at week 6. Trismus occurrence at 10 weeks was higher when the radiation dose to the ipsilateral lateral pterygoid muscle was above the median value, that is, 36.8 grays. CONCLUSION: Trismus occurrence differed according to radiation dose and cancer location. These findings highlight the necessity of early preventive physiotherapy programs to reduce trismus occurrence. The second step, of the interventional multicenter OPEN program, is currently evaluating the impact of preventive physiotherapy and patient education on trismus in a sample of 175 patients.

Importance of Patient Education for At-home Yoga Practice in Women With Hormonal Therapy-induced Pain During Adjuvant Breast Cancer Treatment: A Feasibility Study.

BACKGROUND: Osteo-articular pain (OAP) is experienced by approximately 50% of women under hormonal therapy (HT) for breast cancer (BC), which increases the risk for therapy discontinuation. This study was aimed to assess benefits of yoga practice combined with patient education (PE) for at-home practice by evaluating feasibility among BC patients under HT and measuring OAP, flexibility and satisfaction. METHODS: Feasibility was evaluated by patient adherence as accomplishment of at least 4 out of 6 supervised yoga-PE sessions along with 70% or more at-home yoga sessions. Intervention (12 weeks) included two 6-weeks periods: P1 comprising one 90-minutes supervised yoga-PE session/week and 15-minutes daily at-home yoga and P2, daily autonomous at-home yoga sessions. Evaluations (at inclusion and by the end of each period) consisted in assessment of OAP on Visual Analog Scale (VAS), forward flexibility (cm) and patient satisfaction on Likert (0-10 points) scale. RESULTS: Between September 2018 and May 2019 we included 24 patients of median 53 years (range 36-72). Feasibility was validated by 83% successful adherence rate. Pain was significantly reduced from median VAS of 6 [range 4-10] to 4 [range 0-7] at the end of both P1 and P2 (p < 0.01), albeit with no difference between P1 and P2. Forward flexibility improved by a median gain of 8 cm (end of P2) and median satisfaction score of 10/10 [range 8-10]. CONCLUSION: Combined physiotherapy-yoga-PE intervention is a feasible strategy to increase at-home yoga practice with potential benefit on pain, flexibility, and satisfaction, thus prompting further evaluations in larger randomized multicenter trials. CLINICALTRIALS.GOV: NCT04001751.