Prognostic factors for local control in hypopharyngeal cancer treated with radical irradiation.

PURPOSE: We retrospectively analyzed prognostic factors for local control in hypopharyngeal cancer.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

Twenty-five patients with hypopharyngeal cancer treated with radical irradiation were entered into analyses. Local control according to clinical T stage and subsites of hypopharynx were analyzed. For 8 clinical T2 patients, local control according to findings assessed by pretreatment CT was also evaluated.

RESULTS

The 2-year local control rates were 40% for all, 1/2 for T1, 8/11 (73%) for T2, 1/8 (12%) for T3, and 0/4 for T4. Two-year local control rates were 28% for pyriform sinus cancer and 66% for pharyngeal wall cancer. Local control analysis according to CT findings for patients with T2 hypopharyngeal cancer showed that patients without specified involvement beyond the hypopharynx or in the apex had good local control.

CONCLUSION

Our preliminary analysis suggested that clinical T2 hypopharyngeal cancer patients without invasion beyond the hypopharynx or in the apex demonstrated on CT had favorable local prognosis when treated with radical irradiation.