[Combination therapy of hypopharyngeal cancer]

Between 1978 and 1983, ninety-three patients with cancer of the hypopharynx were treated. They were evaluated as to sex, age, primary site, TNM classification, stage, habits of smoking and drinking, past history of irradiation, treatment modality and end results. Eighty-seven percent of the patients visited us at as late a stage as advanced stage III or IV, and were treated mainly by combined therapy involving irradiation and pharyngolaryngoesophagectomy. The 3-year and 5-year survival rates were 38.6% and 33.3%, respectively. After December 1983, 14 new patients with advanced disease including three with coervical esophageal cancer were treated with neo-adjuvant combination chemotherapy which included cisplatin, peplomycin, methotrexate, and bleomycin over two courses of therapy. The response rate (CR + PR) was high, being 82% for the primary tumor and 78% for the metastatic node. Histopathological effects of neo-adjuvant chemotherapy were studied in the resected specimens. The evaluation was based on the Ohboshi-Shimosato classification. The histological effects did not agree with the clinical effects. Grade II b change was evaluated mostly in CR cases and grade II a change was seen in PR cases. It thus seems that neo-adjuvant chemotherapy prior to surgery and/or radiation including cisplatin and other agents is very useful as a multidisciplinary treatment for cancer of the hypopharynx.