THE COMBINATION of high cure rates and preservation of function makes it difficult to challenge radiation therapy as the treatment of choice in many patients with cancer of the larynx and hypopharynx. The availability of a staging system which may be universally applied has stimulated more precision in the diagnosis and helped define the respective roles of surgery and irradiation. In some categories room for investigation remains, and satisfactory indications for either method of treatment have not been clarified. Our experience in the treatment of 110 cases of carcinoma of the larynx and 20 cases of carcinoma of the hypopharynx treated exclusively by a supervoltage x-ray technique with the Stanford medical linear accelerator is presented.
The TNM classification and staging of carcinoma of the larynx and hypopharynx as recommended by the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging and End Results Reporting have been adopted for this study.1,2 With the