Effects of Brief and Intensive Therapy for Dysphagia in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer during Radio-Chemotherapy: A Pilot Study

Objective: To verify the effectiveness of a Brief and Intensive Dysphagia Therapy programme, in patients with head and neck cancer, during radio-chemotherapy. Study Design: This is a randomized clinical trial - pilot project with a random sample consisting of 11 patients divided into two groups: 7 in the intervention group, who received brief and intensive therapy and 4 in the control group, with weekly therapy. The assessment instruments used were tongue pressure measurement, mouth-opening measures, oral intake scale and quality of life questionnaire. Patients were evaluated before radio-chemotherapy, after 15 days of speech therapy and after radio-chemotherapy. Results: The intervention group presented higher values of lingual apex pressure (p = 0.00), mouth opening maintenance from the second evaluation (35.14 ± 16.82 mm) until the end of the radio-chemotherapy (35.29 p± 5.93 mm), greater oral intake functionality (p = 0.00) and improvement in overall aspects of quality of life questionnaire (p = 0.05) after completion of brief and intensive therapy and radio-chemotherapy. Conclusion: Brief and intensive therapy presented superior results in the maintenance and/or rehabilitation of the swallowing mechanism in patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radio-chemotherapy.