Quality of Life Conference in Head & Neck Cancer

描述(由申请人提供)：头颈部(H&N)癌症的治疗选择越来越多地受到生存等“硬”终点之外的考虑。人们对生活质量(QOL)结果的关注也越来越多。然而，用于衡量和报告生活质量结果的方法存在很大差异，使得机构和研究人员很难比较结果，并导致关于生活质量的结论不一致。有必要及时和相关地就测量和报告H&N癌患者生活质量的通用方法建立国家和国际协议。我们的会议有三个目标：确定头颈癌研究中收集的生活质量结果的类别(以及每个类别的适当量表的例子)；建立报告生活质量和生活质量差异的标准；以及确定令人信服的头颈癌生活质量研究的新方向。 我们建议于2002年10月9日至11日在弗吉尼亚州的麦克莱恩举行这次会议。为了增加参与，我们计划将这次会议与第六届头颈癌国际研究研讨会重叠。这一会议每4年举行一次，吸引了一大批国际领先的头颈癌临床医生和科学家，会议将于2002年10月10日开始。我们已经确定了一个核心发言者小组来提供领导。领导人和参与者将具有不同的背景，来自北美、南美、亚洲、澳大利亚/新西兰和欧洲。我们有来自男性和女性、高级和初级调查人员的优秀代表，以及各种学科的代表，包括耳鼻喉科医生、普通外科医生、颌面外科医生、内科肿瘤学家、放射肿瘤学家、言语病理学家、头颈护士、心理学家、心理测量学家和临床流行病学家。

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.