[Adjuvant chemotherapy in supraglottic epidermoid carcinoma stage T3]

92 squamous cell carcinomas of the supraglottic larynx classified as T3 were treated from 1977 through 1987 and retrospectively analyzed. All the patients of this series received chemotherapy as initial treatment (2 cycles). From 1977 through 1981 the combination of Vincristine-Methotrexate-Bleomycin (VMB) was employed; after 1981, the protocol: Cisplatinum-5 FU with or without Bleomycin (CF) was administered instead of VMB. All the patients were then surgically treated on the tumoral site and cervical lymph chains. At 5-year, there was no significative difference between the two chemotherapeutic regimen in term of locoregional recurrences and second primaries. 5-year actuarial survival rate was higher for patients treated with the CF protocol (71%) versus (54%) with the VMB regimen. Systemic metastases occurred less frequently after CF (4.5%) than after VMB (22.4%). These findings suggest that chemotherapy has substantially some activity against microscopic distant metastases.