Abstract
Thirty-eight patients (37 males and 1 female) with oropharyngeal carcinoma treated at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of the Ryukyus Faculty of Medicine between 1978 and 1985 were reviewed. The pathologic types were all squamous cell carcinoma. The most frequent complaints were pain or abnormal sensation in the throat. The carcinoma was located on the lateral wall in 15 cases, on the superior wall in 13 cases, and on the anterior wall in 10 cases. The clinical stages of the 38 cases were stage I in 5 cases, stage II in 5 cases, stage III in 1 cases, and stage IV in 17 cases, Thirtysix cases were treated with a combination of radiation and chemotherapy and two were operated upon and then irradiated. The dose of radiation ranged from 50 to 80 Gray. Bleomycin was the chemotherapeutic agent used most frequently. The five-year crude survival rate according to TNM classification (UICC 1978) was 80.0% at stage I 60.0% at stage II, 18.2% at stage III, and 23.5% at stage IV. The overall survival rate was 34.2%. Twenty-five patients died from the disease, and in 19 of these cases, the primary disease was the cause of death. It was considered that operative treatment provided better results and that efforts to reconstruct postoperative defects were important in regard to the patients' quality of life.
