Planned preoperative radiation therapy for advanced laryngeal carcinoma

One hundred ten patients with predominantly advanced laryngeal carcinoma were treated in the period 1969-1978 with planned preoperative radiation therapy followed by surgery. Site distribution was: 63 supraglottic, 26 glottic, 15 transglottic and 6 subglottic. There were 4 Stage II patients, 66 Stage III and 40 Stage IV. Preoperative radiation therapy consisted of Telecobalt irradiation to a total dose of 25 Gy given to a target volume encompassing the larynx and regional neck nodes, given in 5 equal daily fractions of 5 Gy in 5 consecutive days. Surgery was performed 2 days later. Total laryngectomy was performed on 48 patients, total laryngectomy with neck dissection on 55 patients, supraglottic laryngectomy on 5 and supraglottic laryngectomy with neck dissection on 2 patients. Crude actuarial 5 and 10 year survival probability for the whole group is 71 and 61%, respectively. The corrected 5 and 10 year survival is 75%. For patients with T3-T4-N0 tumors 5 and 10 year survival probability is: crude 65 and 58%, and corrected 70% respectively. For T3-T4-N+ crude: 75 and 60% and corrected: 78%. Of 110 patients, one died postoperative, three died of intercurrent disease, five died as a result of second malignancy, and 23 died of their larynx carcinoma: 12/23 because of locoregional failure, and 11/23 because of distant metastasis. We concluded that short intensive preoperative radiation therapy and surgery offer a high cure rate in the treatment of advanced resectable laryngeal carcinoma. The merits of this technique are outlined in the text.