[The potentials and limits of the radiotherapy of laryngeal carcinoma].

Early stage glottic carcinoma can be treated with primary radiotherapy reaching equally good results compared to primary surgery; for supraglottic carcinoma surgery offers only slight advantages over primary radiotherapy. Tumor control for recurrences is considerably improved by salvage surgery. The use of primary radiotherapy allows improved or at least preserved voice and reduced rates of acute complications and late treatment sequelae. However, treatment duration is longer and probably more expensive compared to function preservation microlaryngoscopic surgery. Which treatment approach is chosen, depends on individual patient factors and specific conditions in the clinical setting. In any case, primary radiotherapy deserves a stronger say in the early stage tumor situation. In our institution early stage supraglottic carcinomas undergo primary surgery. Advanced carcinomas (T2b and more) are rarely suited for primary radiotherapy with the exception of some very confined T3 tumors. Surgical approaches should be favoured, since they provide a detailed pathohistological tumor staging including R-classification, which would be lacking using primary radiotherapy. There are clear reasons to treat the lymph nodes for glottic carcinomas stage T2b and more and for all supraglottic carcinomas with radiotherapy. Specific risk factors are: tumor at the margins of the incision (R1), infiltration of the cartilage and pre-epiglottic space, paratracheal and subglottic extension of more than 1 cm, perineural invasion, grade III and IV as well as emergency tracheostomy. Postoperative radiotherapy should be given to the lymph nodes for all positive neck-dissections. New therapeutic approaches are on the horizon, which may improve the results of radiotherapy even for advanced larynx carcinomas, like hyperfractionation radiotherapy and simultaneous radio-chemotherapy combined enoral resection and postoperative radiotherapy may yield larynx preservation even for advanced stages. New imaging techniques allow an improved staging and predictive radiobiological assays may play a major role in tumor prognosis.