Failure after radiation therapy or conservative surgery in the head and neck: The role of salvage total laryngectomy

Abstract

The role of salvage total laryngectomy (TL) for local recurrence of head and neck cancer is clinically well described, but long-term (defined as 10-year) survival outcomes exist only in a single study published in 1992. Our institution is a referral center with considerable experience with salvage TL for such complex lesions. We retrospectively investigated long-term survival after TL for radiation therapy (RT) failures, and compared these data to patients receiving salvage TL after failed prior conservative surgery (CS).