Palliation in the management of laryngeal cancer. Comments on the radiotherapeutic approach to advanced disease.

The number of patients in the category of advanced cancer of the larynx and other sites will increase as the population increases, as longevity increases, and as increasingly effective treatment prolongs the life of the uncured cancer patient. Such patients expect no lesser effort on their behalf than is offered to patients with clinically curable cancer and an informed public may not be satisfied with the implications of palliation. Any planned improvement in the patient's status, any useful time gained, is successful treatment. The only true failure is the complication that results from plundering of tolerance which might be preserved and used to good effect by careful treatment planning.