Transoral Laser Surgery and Radiotheraphy for Early Stage Laryngeal Squamous Cell Cancer

Laryngeal cancers are one of the most common head and neck cancers (HNC). According to the 2018 cancer statistics, the estimated number of new laryngeal cancer cases annually is 177.000, and approximately half of these cases died due to the laryngeal cancer. While the most common HNC in the world is oral cavity cancer, in Turkey the most common HNC is laryngeal cancer. In Turkey, laryngeal cancers are showed 6.6/ 100.000 in men, 0.5/ 100.000 in women, and it ranked eighth in cancer deaths in men. Every year in Turkey, more than 3500 cases of new laryngeal cancer are expected, and its incidence has increased significantly in the last ten years.

In the main treatment of early stage laryngeal cancers, surgery (transoral laryngeal surgery (TOLS) - open partial laryngeal surgery (OPLS)) and radiotherapy (RT) are used. Although the oncological results of all of three treatment strategies are similar, TOLS performed with laser is preferred mostly because of short hospital stay, low cost, good functional result, low morbidity and mortality.

There are quite different studies in the literature on whether surgical and non-surgical treatment methods used in the treatment of early stage laryngeal cancers are superior to each other in terms of oncological results. In a randomized controlled study with a large patient series comparing surgery and radiotherapy, 5-year overall survival (OS) in T1 tumors (91.7% in the RT group, 100% in the surgery group) and in T2 tumors (88.8% in the RT group, 97.4% in the surgery group) was similar. 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) in T2 tumors (60.1% in RT group, 78.7% in surgery group) was higher in favor of surgery. Studies comparing TOLS and radiotheraphy in the treatment of early stage laryngeal cancer within the last 20 years have reported comparable oncologic outcomes; two recent meta-analyses have reported better overall survival after TOLS than radiotheraphy, despite being able to show any difference in local control. In this study, we aimed to compare the effects of TOLS and RT on local control, regional control, overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), disease-specific survival (DSS) and larynjectomy-free survival (LFS) in early stage laryngeal cancers in our own series of patients with high patient volume and long follow-up.

Inclusion criteria

• Early stage laryngeal cancer (Tis-1-2N0M0)
• >18 years old.

Exclusion criteria

• <18 years old
• History of another malignant disease
• Incomplete data
• Non-squamous cell carcinoma
• No follow-up.