151751-Najiba-Chargi

350 CHAPTER 17 CONCLUSION Objective and patient-perceived swallowing, mouth opening, and speech function of patients treated with IMRT with or without systemic therapy combined with a preventive rehabilita- tion program for OPC deteriorate up until six months and improve until twelve months after treatment, but do not return to baseline levels. Patients treated with cisplatin-based CRT, HPV negative tumors and patients with pretreatment sarcopenia were more likely to have functional limitations. HPV negative status itself is not likely to be a cause of functional lim - itations, but the associated unfavorable patient and tumor characteristics are. Pretreatment sarcopenia might be a relevant target for prehabilitation strategies. Although for most pa - tients in this cohort organ preserving treatment resulted in function preservation, there is a proportion of patients with functional problems, suggesting room for improvement of the current rehabilitation program.