Combined treatment of hypopharyngeal carcinoma

: From 1978 through 1984, 120 patients with hypopharyngeal carcinomas were treated cooperatively by the University Hospitals of Erlangen. 120 out of these patients were men and 6 women. 96 patients (80%) suffered from cervical lymph node metastases, 91 (76%) were already in UICC stage IV. There were two cases with stage I, eight cases (7%) with stage II, and 19 cases (16%) with stage III. Among the 116 patients treated by causal therapy, 70 (60%) reached complete remission (CR), 34 (29.5%) partial remission (PR), and 12 (10.5%) were non-responders (NC,P). The cumulative survival at five years was 14% in 120 patients and 24% in 70 patients after CR. None of the patients with PR or NC survived more than two years. 111 patients were irradiated. Group 1: radiotherapy alone (41 patients), group 2: surgery and radiotherapy (47 patients), group 3: chemotherapy and radiotherapy (19 patients). The medium treatment period was 76, 107, and 141 days, respectively. The cumulative survival at five years was 3% in group 1, 28% in group 2, the survival at three years in group 3 was 14%. The results of postoperative radiotherapy, amounting to 36%, were better than the rate of 20% achieved by preoperative radiotherapy and surgery. A survival at five years of 46% was obtained after transoral microlaryngoscopic laser resection and postoperative irradiation, which was therefore superior to conventional operation techniques combined with radiotherapy (16%). Moreover, better functional and cosmetic results were achieved with this method. The prognosis is unfavorably influenced by a high stage, lymph node manifestations, and dedifferentiated tumor histology.