Fig. 1

Transition states of the Markov model. Legend: The 3 main Markov states of “no cancer”, “alive with cancer” and “death” were used to simulate the disease process of oropharyngeal cancer. The state of “no cancer” included four sub-states, namely “dysphagia”, “xerostomia”, “dysphagia and xerostomia” and “no complication”. For each cycle, if the patient was in the state of “no cancer”, s/he might stay in the state of “no cancer”, develop into the state of “alive with cancer” or develop into the state of “death” (“other death”). If the patient was in the state of “alive with cancer”, s/he might stay in the state of “alive with cancer” or develop into the state of “death” (“cancer death” or “other death”). If the patient was in the absorbing state “death”, the loop operation would be terminated