Vol.96 No.6 contentsPRACTICA OTO-RHINO-LARYNGOLOGICA
Vol. 96 No.6 June 2003
Treatment of Early Tongue Carcinoma; Partial
Glossectomy Versus Interstitial Brachytherapy
Shiro Akahani, Hidenori Inohara, Yoshifumi Yamamoto,
Tadashi Yoshii and Takeshi Kubo
(Osaka University School of Medicine)
Mamoru Miyaguchi
(Higashi-Osaka Municipal General Hospital)
Kenji Hattori
(Sumitomo Hospital)
Toru Sawada
(Sakai Municipal Hospital)
We analyzed the efficacy of two different therapeutic procedures in 42 cases with T1 and early T2 tongue carcinoma. Fourteen cases underwent partial glossectomy including 2 cases receiving elective neck dissection, and 28 cases receiving interstitial brachytherapy using iridium in 17 cases, microselectron in 8 cases and iridium with external irradiation in 3 cases. More than 90 percent of cases survived beyond the 5-year follow up and the 5-year disease-specific survival did not show any significant difference between the surgically treated group and the brachytherapy group. However, 5-year disease-free survival showed a tendency toward a high recurrence rate in the brachytherapy group (57.2％) compared to that in the surgically treated group (28.6％). In the surgically treated group there were 4 regional recurrences of which 3 could be salvaged. The remaining one case demonstrated multiple metastases to bone and liver. In the brachytherapy group 10 of 14 regional recurrences occurred in a half year and regional failures caused to death in 2 cases.
Thus successful regional and distant control is crucial for treatment of early tongue carcinoma and awaits novel diagnostic procedures for potentially metastatic nodes which may play a key role in the distant spread of tongue carcinoma.
Key words : early tongue carcinoma, partial glossectomy, interstitial brachytherapy