Salvage surgery for local recurrence of hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma after definitive radiotherapy or chemoradiotherapy or bioradiotherapy

Abstract

This study presents the results of patients who underwent salvage surgery for local recurrence of hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma （SCC） after definitive radiotherapy （RT）, chemoradiotherapy （CRT） or bioradiotherapy （BRT）. From 2005 to 2014, 170 patients with hypopharyngeal carcinoma were treated with definitive RT, CRT or BRT. Of the 45 patients （26.5％） who developed local recurrence, 32 underwent salvage surgery. The types of surgical procedures included total pharyngolaryngectomy （n＝17）, partial pharyngectomy （n＝8）, and transoral surgery （n＝7）.
The three-year overall survival rate of patients after the salvage surgery was 71.3％, with a median survival period of 23 months. Among these patients, postoperative complications occurred in 18 patients （56.3％）.
Therefore, we conclude that salvage surgery is an effective treatment for improving the prognosis of patients with local recurrence of hypopharyngeal SCC, and it is important to understand all of the advantages and disadvantages of total pharyngolaryngectomy, partial pharyngectomy, and transoral surgery, in order to select an optimal treatment for each specific case.