Treatment Outcomes of External Ear Canal Cancer

Abstract

We report the treatment results of patients with ear canal cancer who visited the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Kumamoto University, from December 2001 to August 2012. In T1 and T2 cases, a good prognosis was obtained by performing lateral temporal bone resection. On the other hand, T3 cases were given radiotherapy after lateral temporal bone resection and surrounding soft tissue resection, and T4 cases were considered as being inoperable and received radiotherapy combined with arterial CDDP injection. However, both T3 and T4 cases showed a poor prognosis.

Surgical treatment options for advanced cancer cases are limited. These findings suggested the necessity for expanding treatment options, such as radiotherapy combined with arterial CDDP injection or chemoradiotherapy combined with TPF for tumor shrinkage prior to surgical treatment.