The Role of Partial Laryngeal Resection in Current Management of Laryngeal Cancer: a Collective Review

A spectrum of treatment plans and surgical procedures is available for management of early and moderately advanced laryngeal cancer. While the approach of chemotherapy and irradiation, or irradiation alone, followed by total laryngectomy for failure is often employed in practice by present day clinicians, the options of conventional conservation surgery (CCS), transoral endoscopic laser surgery (TLS) and supracricoid partial laryngectomy (SCPL) provide a wide choice of treatments that may help attain the goal of cure with preservation of laryngeal function and integrity of the airway. While CCS has been supplanted for many early-stage lesions by TLS and for more advanced stages by SCPL, centres throughout the world have reported favourable results with CCS, which is often modified to include resection of more extensive tumours than was previously possible. During the past decade a number of extended CCS procedures have been developed for management of glottic tumours involving both vocal cords and the anterior commissure, the paraglottic space and with vocal cord fixation, and for supraglottic tumours involving the glottis or hypopharynx. TLS has proved an effective, minimally invasive and functionally satisfactory procedure for management of suitable T1 and T2 glottic cancers, and stage I-III supraglottic cancers. The procedure may be effectively employed in combination with neck dissection and postoperative radiotherapy when necessary, particularly for moderately advanced supraglottic carcinomas. SCPL has proven effective in management of glottic and supraglottic cancers of all stages, even with involvement of paraglottic space and thyroid cartilage, provided at least one arytenoid unit can be preserved with clear margins. Invasion of cricoid cartilage is the most significant limitation for this procedure. All three surgical approaches have been employed for irradiation failure, but with greatly increased failure and complication rates compared with the results of treatment of non-irradiated patients. Thus a decision to treat laryngeal cancer initially with irradiation may preclude a satisfactory result from partial laryngectomy should radiation fail. The treatment of laryngeal cancer should be individualized according to the size and extent of the tumour, the age and physical condition of the patient, and the skill and experience of the surgeon with various treatment modalities and surgical procedures.