Carcinoma of the Larynx Series of 410 Patients Treated Primarily with 60Co Irradiation

Abstract

From 1965 to 1983 410 patients were treated for laryngeal carcinoma at the radium centre and the ENT department in Odense. No change in pattern of disease could be traced during the period of 18 years. The treatment was predominently ⁶⁰Co irradiation with salvage surgery. 1977 to 1979 bleomycin, methotrexate and vincristine were given before irradiation. In 1979 split course radiation therapy was introduced in the treatment of stage II, III and IV cases and the patients were randomized, half of them receiving the radiosensitizer misonidazole, half of them placebo. Between 75 and 80 per cent of the patients were cured. Whereas chemotherapy did not change the survival some improvements may be traced in the period after 1979.