Quality of life in patients with oropharynx carcinomas: assessment after accelerated radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy versus radical surgery and postoperative radiotherapy.

BACKGROUND: In oropharyngeal carcinomas, it is assumed that the effectiveness of the different treatment approaches is roughly equivalent, whereas the functional outcome after radical radiotherapy (RT) is superior to that associated with primary surgery. The aim of this study is to assess quality of life (QoL) outcomes of patients after two treatment strategies: radical surgery with postoperative RT and accelerated concomitant boost RT with or without chemotherapy. METHODS: Sixty patients who were disease free at least 1 year after treatment of oropharynx carcinoma were studied. Forty had been treated with radical RT (median tumor dose, 69.9 Gy in 5.5 weeks), and 20 had been treated with primary surgery and postoperative monofractionated RT (median dose, 60.2 Gy). Seven of the former patients received chemotherapy concomitantly with, and one before, RT. Functional outcome was assessed by the subjective Performance Status Scale for Head and Neck cancer (PSSHN) and the general QoL by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core QoL questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30). The unpaired t test was used to assess for significant differences between means. RESULTS: By use of the PSSHN module, scores were generally higher in the RT group, with a significant difference in the speech subscale (p =.005), a trend for a significant difference for the eating in public subscale (p =.08), and an insignificant difference for the normalcy of diet subscale (p =.25). When analyzed by tumor stage, no significant differences were observed for T1-2 tumors, whereas for patients with T3-4 tumors highly significant differences favoring the RT group became evident for all three subscales. Although no significant differences were observed using the EORTC QLQ C-30 functional scales, patients treated with primary surgery reported significantly more dyspnea (28 vs 12, p =.04) and appetite loss (30 vs 13, p =.05). In patients with T3-4 tumors, trends toward better scores favoring the RT group were observed for physical, role, emotional, and social functions, as well as a significantly better score for pain symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Although for early stages no clear advantage in QoL outcome was noted for the RT group compared with the surgery group, for advanced-stage disease an advantage favoring radical RT seemed apparent. For those patients, if an equivalency between the two treatment strategies could be assumed regarding oncologic results, then nonsurgical treatment should be considered the preferred option.

Loss of dipeptidylpeptidase IV activity in chronic rhinosinusitis contributes to the neurogenic inflammation induced by substance P in the nasal mucosa.

In this study, we have found that dipeptidylpeptidase IV (DPPIV) plays in vivo an active role in the modulation of the inflammatory response of chronic rhinosinusitis. Human nasal mucosa expresses DPPIV-like immunoreactivity in submucosal seromucus glands, leukocytes, and endothelial cells of blood vessels. DPPIV enzymatic activity in nasal tissue biopsies taken from patients suffering from chronic rhinosinusitis was correlated inversely with the density of inflammatory cells in the nasal mucosa, and the DPPIV activity rose when chronic rhinosinusitis was treated. By using a pig animal model, we have shown that the intranasal administration of recombinant DPPIV decreased the vasodilatation induced by exogenous substance P (SP), a proinflammatory peptide released by sensory nerves. In contrast, an inhibitor of DPPIV enhanced the vasodilatatory effect at low doses of SP. SP5-11 was 100- to 1000-fold less potent than SP as a vasodilator of the nasal mucosa. The vasodilatatory effect of SP was abolished by a NK1 receptor antagonist. In conclusion, these results suggest a new pathophysiological pathway for rhinitis based on clinical observations in humans, indicating the involvement of an enzyme to modulate non-adrenergic and non-cholinergic substrate that occurred during nasal dysfunctions.