Palliative treatment of patients with inoperable recurrent laryngeal cancer

The study included 217 patients with inoperable histologically-verified squamous cell laryngeal cancer. Three modes of palliative treatment were used: chemotherapy (33 patients), radiation therapy (97 patients) and chemoradiation therapy (87 patients). Additional radiation therapy was performed in conventional regimen of dose fractionation (30 to 60 Gy). The total dose including the previous radiation therapy for the primary tumor ranged between 80 and 120 Gy. Palliative treatment and chemoradiation therapy allowing the 3-fold increase in survival rate were found to be the most effective. The one-year survival rates were as follows: 6.1% after chemotherapy, 26.8% after radiation therapy and 19.5% after chemoradiation therapy (differences with chemotherapy were statistically significant). Palliative chemoradiation therapy resulted in improvement of only short-term treatment results influencing no on the life span of the patients as compared to radiation therapy. Additional radiation therapy at a dose higher than 40 Gy was the most effective, and the incidence rate of local radiation-induced damages was not significant. The mode of palliative treatment for recurrent laryngeal cancer should be defined individually.