In the past decade there has been a considerable increase of interest in quality of life (QoL) issues of oncology. This study was planned to investigate whether localization side and stage of cancer, treatment type and radiotherapy doses have effect on quality of life in head and neck (H&N;) carcinoma Turkish patients. 102 H&N; cancer patients (Mean age 58.6 years) were included in the study between May 2002 and August 2003. Demographic data, side of cancer, time of diagnosis, treatment type, and radiotherapy doses were determined with the patients’ clinical files. QoL was assessed with Turkish Variation of EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N; 35. Statistical analysis was performed with SPSS 10.0 programme. It was found that quality of life differs due to location of tumor, stage of cancer, treatment type and radiotherapy dose (p<0.05). Quality of life (QoL) was lower in patients with advanced (Stage III+IV) tumors and treated with radiotherapy plus surgical method. Main factors affecting quality of life were speech problems, taste loss, mouth dryness, swallowing difficulty and emotional disorders. The study showed that quality of life level is low in advanced periods after therapy in head and neck cancer patients. [Turk J Cancer 2007;37(4):129-136]