Response to the letter to the editor: Post-traumatic stress in head and neck cancer survivors and their partners.

Abstract

Dear Editor,

We would like to thank Dr. Yang for the interesting remarks on our recently published paper titled “Post-traumatic stress in head and neck cancer survivors and their partners.”

Dr. Yang raises the question of whether treatment of head and neck cancer (HNC) has an effect on patients’ psychological state. Our results showed that treatment type and time since treatment were not statistically significantly associated with self-reported levels of post-traumatic stress. Research has shown that illness-related variables including the type of cancer treatment received are rarely associated with cancer survivors’ psychological wellbeing and overall quality of life [1, 2]. These findings indicate that patients’ emotional response to cancer may not be directly associated with the severity of cancer and its treatment [2] but with other risk factors such as social support and indices of distress [3]. Dr. Yang makes the point that treatment of HNC might have a more beneficial effect on patients’ well-being than treating anxiety and depression. Ideally, we would recommend both approaches and longitudinal data are needed in order to accurately assess which of these treatments for HNC improves outcomes.