Introduction: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the incidence, management, and prognosis of hypopharyngeal carcinoma in a tertiary care institution over the past 25 years.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients from 1995 to 2019 from the head and neck cancer data base of our institution. The data regarding the demographics, stage, treatment, and follow-up were collected. Outcomes including median survival and overall survival were evaluated using the Kaplan Meier method. All analyses were performed using SPSS version 24.
Results: We identified 144 hypopharyngeal carcinoma patients, and the incidence was almost 4% of all head and neck cancers. All patients had squamous cell carcinoma. Sixty-one percent of patients were African Americans and 36% were Caucasians. Ninety percent of the patients were males, and 10% were females. Pyriform sinus was the subsite most commonly affected (67%), followed by posterior pharyngeal wall (10%) and postcricoid area (5%). Ninety-six percent of patients presented with advanced-stage disease (stages III and IV), with only 4% of patients presenting with early-stage disease (Stages I and II). Fifty-one percent of patients underwent definitive chemoradiotherapy with or without induction chemotherapy and 23% of patients underwent surgical management, followed by adjuvant radiation or chemoradiation, depending on risk factors. Ten percent of patients received only palliative chemotherapy and 15% did not receive any treatments. Induction chemotherapy was used in 31% of patients prior to initiation of definitive chemoradiation treatment. The median overall survival of early-stage patients and of advanced-stage patients was 56 months and 15 months, respectively. The median survival of the patients with advanced-stage patients who received definitive treatment was 26 months. The patients who underwent definitive operative management followed by adjuvant treatments had an improved median survival as compared to those undergoing definitive chemoradiation treatment (38 months vs. 16 months, p=0.05). Similarly, the overall survival at 3 years (30% vs. 54%, p=0.05) and 5 years (13% vs. 34%, p=0.05) was also better for surgery patients. The patients who received induction chemotherapy had clinically worse median survival as compared to those who did not, but this was not statistically significant (14 months vs. 21 months, p=0.2).
Conclusions: Our results agree with the published literature regarding the low incidence of hypopharyngeal cancer, presentation in advanced stages, and poor long-term outcomes. Selection of patients for laryngeal preservation should be done very carefully. Our results suggest that trimodality treatment may be more efficacious than definitive chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced disease. Future studies are warranted to evaluate if neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery might be able to improve the current poor outcomes for advanced hypopharyngeal cancer patients who are not eligible for laryngeal preservation.
Citation Format: Toms Vengaloor Thomas, Mary R. Nittala, Divyang Mehta, Madhava Rao Kanakamedala, Anu Abraham, Lacey Weatherall, Eldrin Bhanat, Ashley A. Albert, Srinivasan Vijayakumar. Hypopharyngeal carcinoma management: 25-year experience from a tertiary care medical center in United States [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-AHNS Head and Neck Cancer Conference: Optimizing Survival and Quality of Life through Basic, Clinical, and Translational Research; 2019 Apr 29-30; Austin, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2020;26(12_Suppl_2):Abstract nr B20.
