Psychological distress in survivors of head/neck cancer

描述(申请人提供)：本次R21申请的总体目标是促进头颈部癌症存活率的研究。这将通过两个具体目标来实现：1.为头颈癌幸存者确定最合适和最具成本效益的控制组。2.为未来的R01应用收集有关心理痛苦的试点数据，以研究头颈癌的长期幸存者(5年或更长时间，超过诊断)。进行长期癌症生存研究的部分挑战是确定合适的对照组。这在头颈癌中尤其如此，因为这种疾病不成比例地影响到可能来自较低社会经济阶层的不同种族的老年男性。为了实现我们的目标，我们将从肿瘤登记中心招募100名长期幸存者，参加关于心理困扰、生活质量和身体功能的电话采访。将使用两个对照组。首先，作为采访的一部分，幸存者将被要求确定2-3个具有相同性别、年龄、种族和工作状态的朋友，他们没有癌症病史，并且愿意参加类似的30分钟电话采访。这是最有可能产生在人口统计学上与幸存者组相似的控制组的方法。这种方法的缺点是，一些幸存者可能不愿意或无法确定谁会参加，一些幸存者可能会提名几个朋友，这可能会对对照组产生偏见。使用随机数字拨号(RDD)方法，将从幸存者的人口普查区域和与癌症幸存者组的性别、年龄和种族匹配的频率中抽取第二个对照组(n=100)。在目前的氛围下，RDD看涨期权的收益率很低。此外，年纪较大的人可能对电话面试官持怀疑态度，因此不清楚这是否是招聘适当对照小组的最具成本效益的方法。将进行组间比较，以确定哪个对照组在性别、年龄、职业、社会经济地位和种族方面与幸存者组匹配最好。该项目的最终目标是为R01应用程序收集试点数据。数据将与老年男性基于人口的标准指数进行比较，并与适合这一人群的疾病具体指数进行比较。将建立标准数据、用于确定未来样本量需求的效应大小以及对照组选择方法的成本效益，以在这一研究不足的人群中进行生存研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall aim of this R21 application is to facilitate the study of head and neck cancer survivorship. This will be accomplished via two specific aims: 1. Identify the most appropriate and cost-effective control group for head and neck cancer survivors. 2. Gather pilot data on psychological distress for a future R01 application to study long-term survivors (5-years and more beyond diagnosis) of head and neck cancer. Part of the challenge of conducting long-term cancer survivorship research is to identify an appropriate control group. This is especially true in head and neck cancer because the disease disproportionately affects older, ethnoracially diverse men who may be from a lower socioeconomic stratum. To achieve our aim we will recruit 100 long-term survivors from the tumor registry to participate in a telephone interview regarding psychological distress, quality of life, and physical function. Two control groups will be utilized. First, as part of the interview, survivors will be asked to identify 2-3 friends of the same sex, age, race, and work status, with no history of cancer, and who would be willing to take part in a similar 30-minute telephone interview. This is the most likely method to yield a control group that is demographically similar to the survivor group. The disadvantage of this approach is that some survivors may be unwilling or unable to identify friends who would participate and some survivors may nominate several friends, potentially biasing the control group. Using random digit dial (RDD) methodology, a second control group (n=100) will be drawn from the survivors' census tracts and frequency matched on sex, age, and race of the cancer survivor group. In the current atmosphere, the yield rate from RDD calls is low. Additionally, older individuals may be suspicious of telephone interviewers, thus it is unclear whether this is the most cost-effective methodology for recruiting an appropriate control group. Between-group comparisons will be conducted to determine which control group yields the best match with the survivor group on sex, age, occupation, socioeconomic status, and race. A final goal of this project will be to collect pilot data for an R01 application. Data will be compared to population-based norms for older men on standardized indices, as well as on illness-specific indices appropriate for this population. Normative data, effect sizes for determination of future sample size requirements, and cost-effectiveness of control group selection methodologies will be established for survivorship research in this understudied population.