Abstract
Seventy eight patients with laryngeal carcinoma, treated in our department from 1979 to 1989, were retrospectively reviewed and the results were analysed.
The male to female ratio was approximately 12: 1. The incidence was highest in the seventh decade.
The five-year survival rate was 75% (83% in the glottic type and 57% in the supraglottic type). Supraglottic T1 and T2 lesions can be controlled by radiation with voice conservation, while the prognosis for supraglottic T3 and T4 lesions was very poor because of untreatable cervical nodes and distant metastasis.
Some “glottic T2 lesion” could not be controlled by radiation, so the five-year survival rate was the same as that of patients with “glottic T3 lesion” treated with total laryngectomy.
Factors to improve survival rates of carcinoma of the larynx are discussed.
