Recurrences after irradiation in early vocal cord cancer with literature review

Abstract
Radiation therapy in early glottic cancer offers an excellent cure rate with preservation of voice. This study is an analysis of 25 (18%) patients who had failures after irradiation. Ten patients were in stage I (T1N0M0) and 15 patients in stage II (T2N0M0). All patients received megavoltage irradiation with an average dose of 6600 rad, 180 to 200 rad per day, 5 days in a week. Of the failures, 15 patients had the tumor controlled by salvage surgery, laryngectomy being the most common surgical procedure. The median time to recurrence was 23 months. A detailed analysis of the failures, along with a literature review, is done in this paper.