[Interstitial brachytherapy in carcinoma of the lip. Case histories and results]

Squamous cell carcinomas of the lip can be treated by surgery or radiation therapy. Since local control rates exceed 90% with both treatment modalities, therapy is chosen according to functional and cosmetic results, to the patient's wishes and to the physician's medical policy. This study was aimed at retrospectively reviewing our local control results and patterns of failure relative to survival as well as evaluating the results according to technical surgical variables. From 1982 to 1991, sixty-nine patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the lip received a course of interstitial brachytherapy with 192Ir. The disease stage was T1 in 36 cases, T2 in 12 cases and T3 in 2 cases and 19 recurrences; 3 patients only had clinically detectable lymph nodes at diagnosis. Interstitial brachytherapy was used as postoperative treatment, at a dose of 60 Gy, in 47 cases. As an exclusive curative approach brachytherapy was given at a reference dose of 65 Gy, with a medium dose rate of 62.88 cGy; a single plane was used in 55 cases, a triangular plane in 11 and a double plane in 3 cases. In one patient only the disease persisted and no local failures were observed. Overall actuarial survival at 5 years is 76.81% (91.3% when corrected for disease). In fact, 6 patients died of disease progression: 3 with lung metastases, 1 with bone metastases and 3 with lymph node metastases. Five patients died of cancer in other sites--i.e., ovary, lung, prostate, hypopharynx, stomach--and 4 of non-neoplastic diseases. Tolerance rates were excellent, with only one mucosal necrosis which resolved spontaneously; no sequelae were observed in gums, teeth and jaws. The cosmetic result was also excellent in most of the cases with a worsening trend for multiplanar disposition. In conclusion, interstitial brachytherapy can be considered the treatment of choice for early lip cancer.