A randomized trial of preoperative radiotherapy in cancer of the oropharynx and hypopharynx.

One hundred patients with stage II and stage III cancer of the oropharynx and hypopharynx were treated under a protocol in which they were randomly selected for treatment by surgery alone or by combined preoperative radiotherapy and surgery. The schedule of preoperative radiation therapy chosen was 2,000 rads from a cobalt 60 machine delivered in five days. Eighty-six of the patients were evaluable at three years; there was no difference in the outcome of the treatment of the two groups. A similar study is urgently needed to determine the value of postoperative radiotherapy in the management of similar cancers.