Conservative treatment for advanced T3–T4 laryngeal cancer: meta-analysis of key oncological outcomes

Goal Controversies exist regarding the treatment of advanced laryngeal carcinomas. The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the oncologic outcomes of both transoral laser and open partial laryngectomies for advanced (T3–T4) squamous cell laryngeal cancers management. Introduction A systematic review of literature was led searching for articles mentioning the following terms: advanced (T3–T4) laryngeal cancer AND laser; AND open partial laryngectomy; AND transoral laser microsurgery; AND cordectomy; AND conservative surgery; AND tracheohyoidopexy or tracheohyoidoepiglottopexy; AND supratracheal partial laryngectomy; AND supracricoid partial laryngectomy; AND cricohyoidopexy or cricohyoidoepiglottopexy. Then a quantitative analysis was carried on papers published after 1980. Discussion The search identified 110 publications, and a total of 21 articles satisfied inclusion criteria and were selected for quantitative synthesis. 10 out of 21 studies had a good quality score, 10 were fair and only one rated a poor score. The pooled disease-free survival (DFS) was 79% (95% CI 74–85), and pooled overall survival (OS) was 71% (95% CI 64–78) at 5 years from all 1921 patients included in the study, with significant heterogeneity ( I 2 = 89.7% and I 2 = 90.4%), respectively. Significant heterogeneity value ( p = 0.118) was seen by comparing transoral laser and open partial laryngectomies in terms of DFS. Conclusion The two surgical techniques are both valid conservative surgical options for advanced laryngeal cancer treatment.