Radiotherapy for benign head and neck paragangliomas

To update our experience treating benign head-and-neck paragangliomas (PGs) with radiotherapy (RT).

A total of 149 patients with 176 PGs received curative-intent RT; 126 received RT to 1 PG and 23 to 2 or more PGs. The most common dose fractionation schedule was 45 Gy/25 once-daily fractions/5 weeks which was used to treat 147 PGs (83.5%) in 123 patients (82.6%). Patients were followed with physical examination and CT/MRI. The median follow-up for all patients was 10.6 years (range, 0.2-50.4 years); the median follow-up for surviving patients was 11.1 years (range, 0.2-50.4).

The 5-year, 10-year, and 15-year outcomes were: local control, 99%, 96%, and 95%; distant metastasis-free survival, 99%, 99%, and 99%; cause-specific survival, 98%, 98%, and 98%; and overall survival, 90%, 75%, and 64%, respectively. No patient developed a moderate or severe complication, or a radiation-induced second tumor or malignant transformation of the benign PG.

RT is an effective treatment for head-and-neck PGs with a low risk of complications.