Preoperative radiotherapy of cancer of the larynx

A series of 128 patients was treated with preoperative radiotherapy, 3000 to 4500 rd, and surgery in 1968 to 1972 at the Radiotherapy Clinic and Otolaryngological Clinic, University Central Hospital, Helsinki. The absolute three-year and five-year survival rates for the total material were 71.1 and 53.2 per cent, respectively. The postoperative complications were two deaths from pneumonia, one of them after aspiration. In addition, 21.3 per cent of the patients had a postoperative fistula. All the fistulae healed spontaneously.