[Squamous carcinoma of the base of the tongue. On 133 cases treated at the Claudius Regaud Centre (author's transl)].

The authors present a homogeneous series of 133 patients with squamous carcinomas of the base of the tongue, treated mostly by external radiotherapy. The survival rate at the end of three years is 17%, and at five years 13%. Studying the local spread or stage of the tumour and survival, it is seen that only T1, T2, N0 and N1a patients (with a three-year survival of 28%) can, in fact, benefit from a curative course of radiotherapy, in which external radiation and curietherapy are associated. In the other cases, radiosensitization, unusual wavelengths of irradiation, or heavy particle irradiation seem to be the only possible ways of improving the prognosis.