State of the art in the treatment of laryngeal cancer.

Nowadays clinics can offer patients a variety of different therapy options when laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma is diagnosed histologically. Depending on a variety of different factors, including tumor size, possible metastasis, health status and age of the patient, but also economic factors, a treatment schedule is established. Aim of every treatment decision should be organ larynx preservation and preservation of laryngeal function. The objective of this review is to give an overview of treatment modalities for laryngeal cancer, based not only on traditional but also on the latest studies regarding the treatment of this disease. Surgical approaches, as well as conservative treatment options, such as chemoradiotherapy, induction therapy and target therapy, are discussed. The optimal combination of surgical treatment and conservative treatment modalities need to be further investigated. Furthermore optimal laryngeal function as well as laryngeal preservation must be re-defined.