Treatment of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Introduction: Laryngeal cancer has an annual worldwide incidence of 177,000 people and it represents 94,000 deaths per year, more than 95% of them are squamous cell carcinomas. 75% of most patients are diagnosed in advanced stages III or IV.

Objective: To describe the treatment of laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma in patients at University Hospital in Honduras.

Methods: A non-experimental, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted, in 34 adult patients with histopathological diagnosis of larynx squamous cell carcinoma from January 2018 to December 2019. We described the initial treatment, stage, time elapsed between the histopathological diagnosis and the start of treatment, in addition to the complications that each patient had during treatment.

Results: At the time of histopathological diagnosis, these subjects were in the following stages: 50.0% stage III and 26.47% stage IV. 90.9% started treatment 21 days after histopathological diagnosis. Radiotherapy was the treatment of choice in 91.18% and none received surgery as treatment. Complications were xerostomia 23.5%, dysphagia 41%, and 29% radiodermatitis.

Conclusions: Laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma predominated in males, in stage III and after the fifth decade of life, according to this study. Efforts should be made to initiate treatment early, after histopathological diagnosis, so as to reduce mortality, in addition to creating a prevention and early detection program for laryngeal cancer.