Disease control and clinicopathological prognostic factors of total pharyngolaryngectomy for hypopharyngeal cancer: a single-center study

Background: Total pharyngolaryngectomy (TPL) is a conventional and standard surgical method for locoregional control of advanced hypopharyngeal cancer (HPC). This study aimed to define the clinicopathological prognostic factors of TPL by evaluating our surgical experience of TPL in the treatment of HPCs. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical charts of patients with HPC who were treated between 1995 and 2011 at the University of Tokyo Hospital and enrolled 119 patients who underwent TPL as an initial curative treatment. Results: The mean follow-up period was 46 months (range, 2–164 months). The 5-year overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS), locoregional control rates, and relapse-free survival for all patients were 44, 53, 76, and 50 %, respectively. In multivariate analysis, the number of ≥4 metastatic lymph nodes (LNs) was a significant poor prognostic factor for both OS and DSS (p = 0.03 and p = 0.01). Patients with moderate to severe comorbidities had poor prognoses for OS (p = 0.002). In addition, patients with the number of ≥4 metastatic LNs had a higher incidence of distant metastases (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: The locoregional control rate following TPL was acceptable and the number of metastatic LNs was associated with the incidence of distant metastases.