TRACKING OF HYPOPHARYNGEAL CARCINOMA OVER 10 YEARS

Between September 1981 and July 1991 we treated 27 patients with squam ous cell carcinoma of the hypopharynx. Almost all of the patients in t he early stages received radiotherapy only, while patients in advanced stages received combination therapy involving chemotherapy, surgery a nd/or radiotherapy. Since 1987, chemotherapy has often been used to tr eat hypopharyngeal carcinoma in our department. Twelve patients receiv ed neo-adjuvant chemotherapy before surgery and/or radiotherapy. The 3 -year survival rate for patients in the advanced stage treated with ne o-adjuvant chemotherapy was 16.7% by the Kaplan-Meier method, and the 5-year survival rate of those treated without neo-adjuvant chemotherap y was 45.8%. The overall 5-year survival rate was 37.0%.