2Department of Radiation Oncology, Şişli Hamidiye Etfal Research and Education Hospital, İstanbul-Turkey
3Department of Otorhinolaryngology, İstanbul Research and Education Hospital, İstanbul-Turkey DOI : 10.5505/tjo.2020.2198 OBJECTIVE
The gold standard treatment for squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx is a resection of the primary tumour with negative surgical margins. In this study, we retrospectively investigated the effects of adjuvant concurrent chemoradiation on the survival rates of laryngeal cancer with close surgery margins and patients with positive surgery margin.
METHODS
A total of 40 patients treated with concurrent chemoradiation were included in this study. All of these
patients had surgery for laryngeal cancer and had received 66 Gy (2Gy/fr) of radiotherapy and concurrent
weekly cisplatin. Patients were stratified into two groups according to surgical margin status.
Members of group 1 had a positive surgery margin; group 2 patients had close surgical margins and were
studied for comparative analyses.
RESULTS
At the median follow-up of 40 months, nine patients (44.4%) experienced local/regional failures, six
of which were detected on the second follow-up. In patients with positive surgical margin, overall survival
(OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and loco-regional progression-free survival (LRPFS) were 59%,
44% and 81%, respectively. OS, DFS and LRPFS for those with close surgical margins were 57%, 46%
and 71%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between Group 1 and Group 2
(p=0.802, p=0.610 and p=0.383, respectively). On univariate Cox-regression analysis, the presence of
perineural invasion and lymphovascular invasion was statistically significant for OS and DFS (p=<0.05).
Being 65 years old or above was statistically significant for OS (p=<0.05).
CONCLUSION
Although limited by small sample size, our results revealed that there was no significant difference between
close and positive margins in terms of OS, DFS and LRFS. More detailed and comprehensive
studies on the close surgical margin (2 mm, 3 mm and 4 mm) are needed.