Interstitial brachytherapy for lower lip carcinoma: Global assessment in a retrospective study of 89 cases

Abstract

Infiltrating squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the lower lip is a highly curable cancer. We retrospectively analyzed oncologic, functional, and cosmetic outcomes after interstitial low-dose rate brachytherapy at 58 Gy (50-62) of lower lip SCC treated in our institution. There were 89 patients (44 T1, 33 T2, 2 T3, and 10 after wedge-excision). All tumors were N0 at the time of treatment. We calculated survival rates and assessed functional and cosmetic results de visu. After a median follow-up of 36 months (range, 9-127), 5-year local control rate was 95% and 5-year disease-free survival was 82%. Only 6 patients (5 T2 and 1 T3) developed secondary cervical nodal involvement. Sixty-one patients were reassessed and 11 patients presented mild functional troubles. Cosmetic results were good (77%) or fair (21%). Brachytherapy provided a high local disease control rate, excellent functional results, and good cosmetic outcomes for SCCs of the lip. Risk of cervical node involvement was low with small tumors.