Outcomes in patients with early-stage hypopharyngeal cancer treated with radiotherapy.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the outcome in patients with early-stage hypopharyngeal cancer (HPC) who were treated with radiotherapy (RT).


METHODS
Between February 1988 and February 2007, 77 patients with Stage I or Stage II HPC underwent definitive RT in the Division of Radiation Oncology at the National Cancer Center Hospital. Eleven of the patients received local irradiation, and the other 66 patients received elective bilateral neck irradiation and booster irradiation to the primary lesion. The median follow-up period for all the patients was 33 months from the start of RT, ranging from 3 to 229 months.


RESULTS
The rates of overall survival, HPC-specific survival, HPC recurrence-free survival, and local control with laryngeal voice preservation for the 77 patients at 5 years were 47%, 74%, 57%, and 70%, respectively. The survival rates were not affected by the patient characteristics or treatment factors, but the RT field was significantly correlated with local control in a multivariate analysis. Seven of the patients had Grade 3 or greater complications, but these complications occurred after salvage surgery in 6 of the patients. Of the 77 patients, 83% had synchronous or metachronous malignancies, but these malignancies did not influence the survival of the patients if the malignancies were detected at an early stage.


CONCLUSIONS
RT is an appropriate treatment method for early-stage HPC. However, because synchronous or metachronous malignancies occur at a relatively high frequency, careful follow-up and the early detection of such malignancies are critical.
Yoshimura
Ryo-ichi
R
Division of Radiation Oncology, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. ysmrmrad@tmd.ac.jp
Kagami
Yoshikazu
Y
Ito
Yoshinori
Y
Asai
Masao
M
Mayahara
Hiroshi
H
Sumi
Minako
M
Itami
Jun
J
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007012:Hypopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009378:Neoplasms, Multiple Primary / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D016879:Salvage Therapy; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome