The multicenter study result of diagnosis and treatment laryngeal carcinoma in Poland from 2001 to 2010

Introduction: The laryngeal cancer is the most frequently diagnose malignancy in head and neck region. The highest morbidity is within male patients in the age range between 50 and 70 years. The multicenter study, coordinated by Oto-laryngology Department of Medical University of Warsaw, was designed to investigate the epidemiology of laryngeal cancer in Poland from 1980 and to analyze the evolution of diagnostic and therapeutical procedures over the years.Material and methods: There was performed retrospective analysis of the medical records of patients with laryn-geal cancer hospitalized and treated in 12 otolaryngology centers in Poland from 2001 to 2010. The Microsoft Access 2003 (SP 2) platform was used to collect the data and subsequent statistical analysis.Results: There were collected data from 4124 patients, 3682 men (89,3%) and 442 women (10,7%). The largest group consisted of patients in the age range between 50 and 60 years (41,5%) and the second large group was of those be-tween 60 and 70 years (29,6%). The history of heavy cigarettes smoking was obtained from 81,3% of patients. Re-garding the staging of laryngeal cancer, there were 1634 patients with cancer stage of I or II, including 5 patients with carcinoma in situ and 2490 patients with III or IV stage. The most frequent localization of the cancer was the glottis, followed with invasion of all three laryngeal levels and tumors occupying both the epiglottis and glottis. The major-ity of patients – 1367 (33%) – has the T3 tumor advancement. The lymph nodes metastases (N) were present in 1216 (29,5%) patients and among them the N2b and N2c advancement ( lymph node larger than 6 cm, multiple) was de-tected in 533 of patients (13%). The lymph nodes involvement occurred in majority within advanced tumors of T3 or T4a. Considering the treatment options they varied depending on the staging of laryngeal cancer. The sole surgical procedures were performed in 73,7% of patients with cancer stage of I or II and in only 28.6% of patients with the stage of III or IV. The advanced tumors were in majority treated with the combined therapy: surgery and radiotherapy. The overall survival in patients with cancer stage of I and II was 64% and 61% for those with stage III and IV.Conclusions: The rate of laryngeal cancer detection is quite high in Poland, however the period from the onset of symptoms until diagnosis should be reduced. The effectiveness of surgical treatment is definitely unsatisfactory. The project to create a multicenter permanent base for monitoring the course of diagnosis and treatment in patients with laryngeal cancer surely will verify the procedures and enable to achieve better results. Continuation of this project is a task for all otorhinolaryngologists.KEYWORDS:laryngeal carcinoma, epidemiology, clinical characteristics, multicenter study