Advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma treatment results according to treatmentmodalities

Background. The purpose of this retrospective study is to compare the treat ment results of locally advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma according to trea tment modalities. Methods, Seventy-three patients with locally advanced hypopharyngeal carcin oma treated at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology, Seoul National Univ ersity Hospital, between August 1979 and July 1997 were retrospectively ana lyzed. Twenty-three patients were treated with radiotherapy (RT) alone, 18 patients were treated with surgery and postoperative RT, and 32 patients we re treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (CTx) and RT. Median follow-up per iod was 28 months. Results. The overall 5-year survival rates were 15.7% for the FIT alone gro up, 46.8% for surgery and postoperative FIT group, and 43.0% for neoadjuvan t CTx and RT group, The 5-year disease-free survival rates were 13.9%, 47.4 %, and 30.7%, respectively. Surgery and postoperative FIT or neoadjuvant CT x and FIT showed superiority over RT alone in terms of both overall surviva l and disease-free survival rates. No significant differences were found in overall and disease-free survival rates between the surgery and postoperat ive FIT group and neoadjuvant CTx and RT group (p = .15, p = .13). In the n eoadjuvant CTx and FIT group, 12 patients (38%) retained their larynx more than 5 years, Conclusion. Neoadjuvant CTx and RT is an effective strategy to achieve orga n preservation without compromising the survival of patients with locally a dvanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.