[Ten years experience with combination therapy for tonsillar malignancies (author's transl)]

From 1968 to 1978, 125 patients with cancer of the tonsil have been treated by the Departments of Radiology and Otolaryngology at the University Hospital, Homburg-Saar. Although all patients were unirradiated, many had previously undergone a surgical procedure. Most of the cancers when seen were in advanced stages. The three-year and five-year survival rates were 38.6 and 23.5% respectively. Reticulum cell sarcomas, Schmincke's tumors and non-keratinized squamous cell carcinomas had better prognoses than keratinized squamous cell carcinomas. Our findings indicate that the volume of large tumors should be reduced by surgical means before irradiation since irradiation alone resulted in a higher relapse rate in the advanced cancers. Various methods for radiotherapy either before or after surgery for different tumor stages are discussed. The combination of chemotherapy with radiation to make use of the so-called "partial synchronisation effect" in cases of inoperable extensive primary tumors or relapses is described.