Laryngeal cancer without spread to the neck: treatment options and outcome

We examined treatment and outcome variables in patients who had laryngeal cancer without clinical evidence of spread to the neck. In our patient population, there was a 24% overall recurrence rate for N0 laryngeal cancer. Initial manifestations, including stage and location of tumor, did not influence recurrence (P greater than .1). Initial treatment of the primary T3 or T4 tumor with radiotherapy alone was positively correlated with recurrence (P less than .0 for T3, P less than .0 for T4), but initial treatment of the neck did not appear to affect chance of regional or distant recurrence (P greater than .1). Approximately half of the patients who had recurrent disease were salvaged. Neither chance of salvage nor final disease-free status was significantly associated with any of the variables (P greater than .1).