Efficacy of radical radiotherapy alone for functional preservation of larynx in laryngeal carcinoma: a retrospective analysis.

Abstract

Concurrent chemoradiation is the current standard of care in locally advanced head and neck cancer. But, in our setup, many patients of carcinoma larynx are treated with only radical radiotherapy because of poor general condition of the patients. This study was performed to assess the influence radical radiotherapy alone on functional preservation of larynx. 110 previously untreated patients with invasive squamous cell carcinoma of larynx were treated with radical radiotherapy alone between January 2006 and June 2009. Conventional one daily fraction of 2 Gy with total doses of 60-66 Gy was used. Voice preservation and local control at median follow-up period of 2 years were analyzed. Several host, tumor, and treatment parameters were also analyzed. Among 110 patients, preservation of larynx was possible in 78 patients (71%). With radical radiotherapy alone, excellent preservation of larynx was achieved in stage I (88.9%) and stage II (75%) disease, while in advanced stages, results were not so encouraging. In stage III and stage IVA, larynx preservation was only 72.4% and 65.3%, respectively. Patients without any cartilage invasion had significantly better laryngeal preservation rate as compared to patients with cartilage invasion. (78.9% vs. 35.3%; P = 0.008). Though concurrent chemoradiation is the standard of care in preservation of voice in laryngeal cancer, definitive radiotherapy alone may also be a good option in terms of preservation of larynx in patients of laryngeal cancer in community practice in the developing world where most of the patients cannot tolerate concurrent chemoradiation.