Analysis of surgical therapy for epidermoid carcinoma of the laryngeal glottis.

Four hundred sixty-three patients with glottic carcinoma were treated by surgical techniques with or without preoperative irradiation. Two hundred eighty-one had hemilaryngectomy and 182 total laryngectomy procedures. The overall cure rate for the hemilaryngectomy group was 91 percent and 80 percent for the total laryngectomy group, with an overall cure rate of 87 percent. Our observations support the fact that Stage I glottic carcinoma has slightly better prognosis when treated by hemilaryngectomy. Stage II and III lesions have a significant improvement in cure rate and survival when treated with combined preoperative irradiation and partiall vertical laryngectomy or total laryngectomy than by irradiation alone.