Clinical effect of postoperative chemoradiotherapy in resected advanced laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is one of the most prevalent types of head and neck malignancies. Advanced LSCC has failed to demonstrate a satisfactory prognosis, despite the progresses in the diagnosis and treatment, and the optimal treatment modality continues to be debated. To evaluate the clinical utility and survival outcomes of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for patients with resected advanced LSCC, a retrospective analysis of 232 patients with LSCC who had undergone total laryngectomy and neck dissection between 2005 and 2010 was conducted. Of the 232 eligible patients, 167 patients (72%) received surgery alone, whereas 65 patients (28%) received surgery + adjuvant CRT. In the overall cohort, the 5- and 10-year overall survival (OS) rates were 55.2 and 48.3%, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that the clinical stage was significantly associated with OS. However, the N classification was an independent indicator in disease-free survival and laryngeal cancer-specific survival. In those patients with stage IV disease, patients receiving adjuvant CRT exhibited a markedly improved survival benefit compared with patients receiving surgical treatment only, following propensity score matching of the data (P<0.05). The application of adjuvant CRT confers additional survival benefits in comparison with surgery-only treatment regimens for advanced LSCC. However, additional prospective studies are required.