PROGNOSTIC FACTORS IN SUPRAGLOTTIC LARYNGEAL CARCINOMA

We carried out a retrospective study of patients with supraglottic car cinomas who were treated surgically at the Marques de Valdecilla Hospi tal (Santander, Spain) between 1978 and 1987 and who were followed up for at least 5 years. The Kaplan-Meier survival curves were calculated for 24 clinical, histologic, and morphometric parameters, Multivariat e analysis was then performed by means of the Cox regression model. In the univariate analysis, survival was related to presence of capsule rupture of the involved lymph nodes (p = 0.00001), number of metastati c lymph nodes (p = 0.0002), postoperative TNM stage (p = 0.004), grade of cell differentiation (p = 0.001), presence of intratumoral necrosi s (p = 0.01), and type of invasion (p = 0.04). The nuclear area did no t have an influence on survival. Only the presence or absence of capsu le rupture of the metastatic lymph nodes and the grade of cell differe ntiation were included in the final Cox model and proved to be paramet ers with independent prognostic significance.