Oral Health and Dental Medicine

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) are the sixth most common malignant tumor worldwide. The survival rate of 50% over 5 years has been unsuccessful in improving over the past few decades. Pakistan falls in to a high-risk head and neck cancer geographical zone. The chief aim of this study was to highlight the things that were of concern to the head and neck cancer patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted on randomly selected 132 patients presenting to the ENT Department of Civil hospital Karachi and Ziauddin University hospital. A semi-structured questionnaire containing questions regarding personal demographics, and various concerns of patients was utilized. The results showed that of the 122 patients, 76 were males and 56 were females. The age range was 18-80 years. 66 (50%) of the patients presented with squamous cell carcinoma of the buccal mucosa. The patients showed the highest concern regarding chewing (61%), mouth opening (57%), Pain in the head and neck (57%) and 54% showed increase anxiety levels since they had been informed of their condition. Patient concern inventory (PCI) has been indicated to be a very effective tool in gathering and summarizing a head & neck cancer patient may have. This leads to a patient-directed consultation to occur in hectic outpatient settings. It is therefore recommended to use PCI as a tool when seeing a HNSCC patient to allow efficient healthcare usage based on individual needs of these patients over a period.