Treatment of Subglottic Carcinoma

Abstract

A retrospective review was performed on 12 patients (10 male and 2 female ; mean age of 62.1 years) with subglottic cancer who received initial treatment at Kurume University Hospital between 1979 and 2006. In T classification, there were 4 T2 cases and 8 T4 cases. In N classification, there were 8 NO cases, 3 N1 cases and 1 N2 case.
3 were at stage 2 and 9 were at stage 4a. The 3-year and 5-year survival rates as determined by the Kaplan-Meier method were 81.8% and 70.1% respectively. The 3-year and 5-year survival rates for cases at stage T2 were both 75%, whereas those at T4 were 83.3% and 62.5%. 6 patients died. 3 patients died of the primary disease (lymph node death : 1, distant metastasis death : 2). Total laryngectomy with bilateral paratracheal neck dissection was performed in 9 cases. (3 T2 cases and 6 T4 cases). Radiotherapy as additional treatment was performed on 4 out of 9 cases.
Laryngeal preservation operations were performed in 3 cases (1 T2 cases and 2 T4 cases). Radiotherapy and chemotherapy were performed in 2 cases while super-selective intra-arterial chemotherapy with radiotherapy was performed in 1 case. This particular patient did not experience recurrence. It is conceivable that super-selective intra-arterial chemotherapy with radiotherapy is one of the more effective treatments in laryngeal preservation.