Surgical options in radiotherapy-failed early glottic cancer

After failure of curative radiotherapy (RT), surgery is the main therapeutic option to control recurrent laryngeal cancer. Recurrences after RT for T1-T2 tumours of the glottic larynx are often diagnosed at a more severe stage than the original disease and, thus, usually treated by radical approaches. Our aim is to investigate the feasibility of more conservative strategies for proper treatment of post-RT recurred glottic cancer. We collected and reviewed our files from 1990 to 2006, selecting 75 patients which matched the following inclusion criteria: (1) patient was originally diagnosed with early stage squamous cell carcinoma of the glottic larynx (stage I-II according to 2010 TNM), (2) patient was treated by RT with curative intent, (3) patient presented a recurrence of disease after RT which was surgically treated at our Institution. T stage at first diagnosis was T1a in 41 cases (55 %), T1b in 12 (16 %) and T2 in 22 (29 %). At clinical examination of RT-recurred lesions, we documented advanced lesions (rT3-rT4) in 29 out of 75 patients (39 %). Overall, an upstage was reported for 56 % RT-recurred cancers, while 37.3 % remained at the same stage than the original tumour and 6.7 % were downstaged. Twelve patients (16 %) underwent salvage partial laryngectomy (SPL), while 63 (84 %) received a salvage total laryngectomy (STL). Multivariate analysis showed that rTNM according to the AJCC-UICC of 2010 was the only prognostic factor for both disease-free survival (p = 0.042) and overall survival (p = 0.004). Considering the prognostic impact of rT and rN we documented a statistical significance only in terms of overall survival for both factors (p = 0.004 and p = 0.04, respectively). Although STL remains the most frequent treatment choice for failures after RT in laryngeal carcinomas, SPL represents a valid option for selected patients with limited recurrence and can deliver good oncologic and functional results if performed according to careful indications.