Daniel Chang, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Lesley Jarvis MD, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

To describe the degree of xerostomia in patients treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) of Waldeyer’s ring using a validated xerostomia questionnaire (XQ).

Fifteen patients treated at the University of Florida for stage I-IV NHL of Waldeyer’s ring with radiotherapy (RT) who were alive and disease-free were identified. They were contacted by phone and administered the questionnaire, which consisted of 8 questions. Each question asked for a numerical response ranging from 0 to 10 regarding the severity of a particular symptom due to xerostomia (0 = none, 10 = most severe). The total numerical responses were normalized into an adjusted total XQ score. The results for the Waldeyer’s ring patients were compared to the following 4 groups of patients treated for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck region based on the amount of parotid gland in the RT field: 1) patients who had small RT fields for early vocal cord cancer (larynx-only, no-parotid group); 2) patients who received ipsilateral RT with a wedge-pair for a well-lateralized tonsil cancer (ipsilateral parotid group); 3) patients who received RT for an oral cavity cancer and only had partial parotid irradiation (bilateral-partial parotid group); and 4) patients who received bilateral RT for an oropharyngeal primary cancer that irradiated the majority of the parotid glands (bilateral-total parotid group).

The median XQ score for the Waldeyer’s NHL patients was 31 (normalized score: 0 = no xerostomia, 100 = maximum xerostomia), which was significantly different from the larynx-only, no-parotid group (XQ = 4), bilateral-partial parotid group (XQ = 53), and bilateral-total parotid group (XQ = 64), but not significantly different from the ipsilateral parotid group (XQ = 34).

Xerostomia in long-term survivors of NHL of Waldeyer’s ring is a detectable long-term toxicity with severity similar to those who receive ipsilateral head and neck RT. The potential exists for parotid-sparing RT techniques.

Chang, D, Jarvis, L, Xerostomia in Patients Treated for Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma of Waldeyer’s Ring: The Potential for Parotid-Sparing Irradiation.  Radiological Society of North America 2007 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 25 - November 30, 2007 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2007/6000142.html