Quality of Life Conference in Head & Neck Cancer

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The choice of treatment for head and neck (H&N) cancer is increasingly guided by considerations beyond "hard" end-points such as survival. Much attention has been directed to quality of life (QOL) outcomes. However, substantial variation in the methods used to measure and report quality of life outcomes makes it difficult to compare results between institutions and investigators, and has led to inconsistent conclusions about QOL. There is a timely and relevant need to establish national and international agreement on common methods for measuring and reporting QOL in H&N cancer. We have three goals for the conference: Identify categories of QOL outcomes (and examples of appropriate scales in each category) to collect in studies of head and neck cancer; Establish standards for reporting QOL and QOL differences; and Identify compelling new directions of QOL research in head and neck cancer. We propose to hold this conference in McLean, Virginia on October 9-11, 2002. To increase participation, we plan to overlap this conference with the Sixth International Research Workshop on Head and Neck Cancer. This meeting is held every 4 years and attracts a large international audience of leading head and neck cancer clinicians and scientists, and will begin on October 10, 2002. We have identified a core group of speakers to provide leadership. Leaders and participants will have diverse backgrounds and come from North America, South America, Asia, Australia/New Zealand, and Europe. We have excellent representation from both men and women, senior and junior investigators, and a variety of disciplines, including otolaryngologists, general surgeons, maxillofacial surgeons, medical oncologist, radiation oncologists, speech pathologists, head and neck nurses, psychologists, psychometricians and clinical epidemiologists.