A Study on Hypopharyngeal Carcinoma

Abstract

The clinical data of 56 patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma who were seen between 1991 and 2011 were evaluated at our department. The overall 5-year disease-free survival rate was 43.6%. The survival rates in the patients with stage I (n=3), stage II (n=13), stage III (n=3), stage IV (n=37) disease were 66.7%, 83.8%, 0%, and 31.4%, respectively. Among the patients with stage III/stage IV disease, the survival rate in those who underwent surgery (n=8) was 83.8%, while that in those who underwent concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) (n=30) was only of 22.3%. The survival rate in patients who underwent adjuvant chemotherapy with S-1 (n=16) was 46.3%, and that in patients who underwent adjuvant chemotherapy without S-1 (n=24) was 20.5%. These results suggest that surgery plays a very important role in the treatment of advanced hypopharyngeal carcinoma and that appropriate adjuvant chemotherapy improves the outcome in these patients.