Nishant Agrawal

Publication Detail

The publication detail shows the title, authors (with indicators showing other profiled authors), information on the publishing organization, abstract and a link to the article in PubMed. This abstract is what is used to create the fingerprint of the publication. If any grants are referenced by the publication, they will be listed here as well.

Multidisciplinary head and neck cancer clinic and adherence with speech pathology.

Heather Starmer; Giuseppe Sanguineti; Shanthi Marur; Christine G Gourin (Profiled Authors: Shanthi Marur; Heather Starmer; Christine Gourin)

Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, # Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland 21287, USA. hstarme1@jhmi.edu
The Laryngoscope 2011;121(10):2131-5.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of referral patterns on compliance with speech-language pathology (SLP) treatment of voice and swallowing difficulties in patients with head and neck cancer (HNCA). STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. METHODS: Patients with newly diagnosed oropharyngeal HNCA referred for pretreatment SLP evaluation comprised the study population. Compliance was measured by participation in SLP therapy during and after head and neck treatment, as well as by the number of missed and completed visits. Outcomes were compared between patients who were initially evaluated through the multidisciplinary clinic and those evaluated outside of the multidisciplinary clinic format. RESULTS: The final study sample included 118 individuals with oropharyngeal tumors. All patients were treated with primary radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy. Patients evaluated initially through the multidisciplinary clinic had more SLP visits than those who did not participate in the multidisciplinary clinic (mean = 1.8 vs. 0.2, P <.0001). Participation in SLP treatment was significantly greater for patients ≥ 60 years of age (odds ratio [OR] = 2.4, P =.032) and for patients who participated in the multidisciplinary clinic (OR = 19.3, P <.0001). Tumor stage, sex, race, marital status, and insurance status were not associated with patient compliance. Multivariate analysis revealed that participation in a multidisciplinary clinic was the only significant variable associated with SLP treatment compliance (OR = 12.9, P <.0001), after controlling for all other variables. CONCLUSIONS: Patients evaluated in a multidisciplinary clinic are more likely to comply with SLP treatment recommendations.

Scientific Context

This section shows information related to the publication - computed using the fingerprint of the publication - including related publications, related experts and related grants with fingerprints representing significant amounts of overlap between their fingerprint and this publication. The red dots indicate whether those experts or terms appear within the publication, thereby showing potential and actual connections.