Objective To investigate the status quo of symptom clusters and quality of life in patients with head and neck cancer during concurrent chemoradiotherapy, and to analyze the correlation between them.

Methods A total of 134 patients from a tertiary hospital in Anhui province were investigated with the general information questionnaire, M.D.Anderson symptom inventory-head and neck module and the functional assessment of cancer therapy-head and neck.

Results Five symptom clusters were extracted by factor analysis: head and neck radiotherapy-specific symptom cluster, eating disorder symptom cluster, sickness and behavior symptom cluster, psychological and emotional symptom cluster, and gastrointestinal symptom cluster.The cumulative variance contribution rate was 72.21%, and the head and neck radiotherapy-specific symptom cluster was the most serious.The total score of quality of life was (82.95±9.01), which was at a low level.The five symptom clusters were significantly negatively correlated with the total score of quality of life (P < 0.05 to P < 0.01).Regression analysis showed that except for the gastrointestinal symptom cluster, the other four symptom clusters were negative predictors of quality of life (P < 0.05 to P < 0.01).

Conclusions There are several symptom clusters affecting the quality of life in patients with head and neck cancer during concurrent chemoradiotherapy.Medical staff should timely and accurately identify and intervene these symptom clusters, especially the head and neck radiotherapy-specific symptom cluster, so as to improve the quality of life of patients.