Improved survival associated with postoperative wound infection in laryngeal cancer: an analysis of its therapeutic implications.

A retrospective analysis revealed improved survival rates in laryngeal cancer patients who had postoperative wound infection following total laryngectomy and radical neck resection. The overall five-year survival rates were 44% in the infection group and 31% in the control group. On further analysis, the beneficial effect of infection was most evident in patients with stage III disease. Seventy-three percent of these patients with wound infection were alive at five years, compared with 32% of the control group. The protection from recurrent cancer in these patients afforded by the bacterial contamination may be secondary to activated immune mechanisms. The therapeutic implications of our findings suggest that the immune adjuvant is given at the time of surgical treatment rather than when tumor burden is far advanced. Only a few such protocols are under analysis presently.