Getting Recovery Right After Neck Dissection for Head and Neck Cancer (GRRAND)

Research summary

Head and neck cancer affects the mouth, throat, salivary glands, voice box, nose or sinuses. Every year over 12,000 people get head and neck cancer. It is the 8th most common form of cancer. Over recent years many more people, particularly young people, have developed head and neck cancers. Many of these cancers are removed surgically. Some people also need radiotherapy or chemotherapy. Treatments are improving and better at getting rid of these cancers. Neck dissection is a common operation for this. This involves an operation to remove the lymph nodes in the neck. Many people having neck dissection have poor shoulder and neck movements, pain, fatigue and low mood afterwards. Only half ever return to work. We do not know the best way to help people recover after this operation. We want to find out whether physiotherapy treatment after neck dissection for these cancers helps people recover better. We will recruit 390 people from at least 12 hospitals who have had surgery for a head and neck cancer. We will randomly allocate them to either: (1) usual NHS care which is physiotherapy assessment in hospital and a leaflet providing advice on basic exercises OR (2) usual NHS care PLUS the GRRAND physiotherapy programme. The GRRAND physiotherapy programme is extra physiotherapy treatment included neck and shoulder exercises, education on how to manage pain and relaxation techniques to help cope with fatigue and anxiety. Over the first 12 months after the operation, we will compare how well people recover and their overall quality of life after a year in each group. We will work out how much each treatment costs. This will tell us if the GRRAND programme helps people recover better after neck dissection for head and cancers, and if it is good value for the NHS.

Principal Investigator

Mr Stuart Winter

Contact us

Email: crndirectdeliveryteam@ouh.nhs.uk

IRAS number

333106