[Transmandibular buccopharyngectomy after radiotherapy for orpharyngeal cancer]

We present a retrospective study of 95 patients with recurrence of oropharyngeal carcinoma after exclusive radiotherapy. The treatment consisted in a salvage composite resection in all cases.

Since the use of muscular flaps, the post-operative complications have been relatively minimised but the carcinologic results were disappointing: only 20% of patients were alive free of disease at 5 years. The main prognostic factors for overall survival were the stage rT of the relapse, the histologic invasion of the nodes and the quality of the resection. The anatomic site of relapse did not influence the survival.

Our serie confirms the high frequency of second primary tumors in oropharyngeal cancers. Rigorous selection of patients for exclusive radiotherapy is mandatory to decrease the number of relapses and might avoid salvage surgery.