Original Article Purpose

The purpose of this study is to compare the treatment outcomes for locally advanced resectable hypopharyngeal cancer between organ-preserving chemoradiotherapy (CRT) and surgery followed by radiotherapy (SRT). Materials and Methods We reviewed 91 patients with stage III/IV hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma treated with radiotherapy (RT). In the CRT group (n=34), 18 patients were treated with concurrent CRT and 16 patients with induction chemotherapy plus concurrent CRT. In the SRT group (n=57), six patients were treated with total laryngopharyngectomy, 34 patients with total laryngectomy (TL) and partial pharyngectomy (PP), and 17 patients with PP, which were followed by adjuvant radiotherapy (n=41) or CRT (n=16). The median RT dose was 70 Gy for CRT and 59.4 Gy for SRT. Results Five-year local control (84.1 % vs. 90.9%), and disease-free survival (DFS, 51.0 % vs. 52.7%) and overall survival (OS, 58.6 % vs. 56.6%) showed no significant difference between the CRT and SRT groups. The functional larynx-preservation rate was higher in the CRT grou