Quality of Life After Laser Cordectomy in Early Glottic Cancer

Laryngeal cancer is associated with a cure rate from 30 to 90% by primary treatment with irradiation therapy, open surgical excision or microinvasive endolaryngeal surgical excision based on the stages. Prior to advances in endoscopic surgical techniques, radiation therapy with or without chemotherapy offered treatment with less morbidity than open surgical resection. Therefore, throughout the later part of the 20th century, radiation therapy became the standard management for laryngeal cancer.

In the America, the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program and the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) data have shown the survival rate of laryngeal cancer decreased in the 1990's. Five-year relative survival for laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma recorded in the NCDB ranged from a high of 68.1% in 1985 to a low of 62.8% in 1993.

Treatment patterns have changed with an increase in nonsurgical management with irradiation alone and with chemoradiation. Radiation or chemoradiation therapies provided a treatment choice to preserve the larynx. However, the increase in nonsurgical management parallels the increase in mortality across the years of study for which survival analysis was performed (1985-1996).

In the past two decades, the evolution of microinvasive TLM surgery makes it possible to eradicate tumors with preserving laryngeal functions. It has been demonstrated that cure rates can be obtained that are comparable with other treatment modalities. In addition, morbidity from treatment by TLM is substantially less than morbidity associated with open surgical techniques and may be the same or less than morbidity associated with radiation or chemoradiation therapy. Therefore, TLM as an initial treatment modality for laryngeal cancer is more commonly practiced.

TLM offers advantages over other forms of treatment. First it can usually be accomplished in a single intervention in early stage of disease- thus decreasing the overall treatment time and cost when compared to radiation therapy. Second, as opposed to open surgical techniques, resection by endoscopic methods does not require a tracheotomy for airway maintenance. Third, rehabilitation time to independent swallowing has been shown in multiple series to be reduced compared with open surgical techniques. And forth, it leaves all opportunities in adjuvant or salvage therapy. Due to these advances, TLM surgery of laryngeal cancer is becoming more widely used in recent years for a focal small lesion and has also been demonstrated to have a comparable survival rate and local control rate in advanced stage to other forms of treatment.