A recent review was published with the aim of determining the prevalence of return to work (RTW) amongst head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors and to determine its impact on quality of life (QoL), providing some interesting results.

The meta-analyses found a pooled prevalence of RTW in HNC survivors of 67% (96% CI 62%-73%), with a high heterogeneity between studies. In-depth analyses found that 44% (96% CI 38%-51%) of HNC survivors worked a reduced number of hours and 30% (95% CI 15%–45%) had to change work after completion of their treatment.

As regards QoL patients who RTW were demonstrated to have lower anxiety and depressive symptoms, improved physical and social-emotional function, and a higher global QoL when compared to the non-RTW group.

The wide variability in the RTW reported in the meta-analysis is due both to the variety of sociodemographic and clinical characteristics considered and to the variations in measurement of RTW between studies. Another limitation is that most of the studies included in the meta-analysis are cross-sectional. This suggest that future studies need to use consistent definitions for RTW and consider confounding factors which may influence RTW rate, but also that longitudinal studies are preferable to better understand the history of RTW.

Reference: Yu J, Smith J, Marwah R, Edkins O. Return to work in patients with head and neck cancer: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Head Neck 2022; 44(12):2904-2924.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hed.27197

Returning to work is confirmed in any case as an important outcome to consider in the survivorship care of patients with HNC.