Treatment of early glottic squamous cell carcinoma

We treat early glottic squamous cell carcinoma with chemoradiation and evaluate the effects of the chemoradiation at the dose of 30-40 Gy as an intermediate evaluation. To investigate the need for this intermediate evaluation, we retrospectively analyzed 97 patients, 92 men and 5 women aged 36 to 86 years, with glottic squamous cell carcinoma at stage I and II treated at our institution from January 2000 to May 2007. The three-year survival rate was 98% in all cases, 100% in T1a, 93% in T1b and 94% in T2. The three-year preservation rate of the larynx was 92% in all cases, 98% in T1a, 93% in T1b and 83% in T2. In the intermediate evaluation, complete response was 78% in T1a, 85% in T1b and 53% in T2. In cases of larynx preservation, the recurrence rate of the primary site was significantly higher in cases without complete response in the intermediate evaluation than in cases with complete response (p < 0.05). It seemed that the not complete response case in the intermediate evaluation paid attention to a primary tumor recurrence in particular and needed careful follow-up.