[Ionizing radiation and laryngeal cancer]

The cause behind the currently ever increasing number of patients presenting with laryngeal cancer lies not only in the lack of the apprehensive attitude toward oncological diseases among the medical profession but also in the changing conditions of human life and environment. As many as 165 patients suffering from laryngeal cancer of the 490 ones admitted to our clinic had undergone the influence of ionizing radiation before they were allocated to the main study group while the remaining 325 cases made up the control group. The former group included 112 firefighters of the Chernobyl disaster. It was shown that the progression rate of the disease among the patients of the main group was much higher than among those comprising the control one. A similar difference was documented in the occurrence of regional and remote metastases that were not infrequently the earliest manifestations of the disease. All the patients of the main study group were given the surgical treatment. The firefighters died within one year after the onset of the treatment due to multifocal tumours, regional and remote metastases.