Clinical Significance of Oral Health Related Quality of Life for Oral Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review

Background: Oral cancer is relevant not only to medical practitioners but also to dentists because they have a responsibility in the early detection and prevention in the early stages of disease. Dentists are also responsible for supportive care and prosthetic rehabilitation of oral cancer patients undergoing treatment. However, more work is required on the clinical significance of quality of life for oral cancer patients. Few reviews have been conducted on the clinical significance of oral health related quality of life in oral cancer patients and hence there is minimal guidance on the support these patients need. Methods: An electronic search was conducted on Google Scholar, PubMed, Biomedical central, JSTOR and Oxford Academic databases between October 2020 and November 2021 using the keywords “oral cancer”, “oral health related quality of life” and “clinical significance”. The search was limited to dental journals and MEDLINE and the information was extracted using the PRISMA guidelines. Results: Nine articles out of eighty-eight were found to be most relevant and were included in the analysis. Surgery has had significantly (p<0.05) positive effects on the oral health related quality of life of oral cancer patients than patients who received radiotherapy. However, microvascular surgery seemed to negatively affect the quality of life than local reconstruction. Xerostomia was worst in patients undergoing head and neck radiotherapy, then those patients who only had oral surgery. Conclusion: Evidence suggests that oral cancer patients’ experience a negative impact to health-related quality of life especially in the first three months but the quality of life improves thereafter almost five years after oncological treatment.