Transoral Robotic Surgery Versus Chemoradiation Treatment in Oropharyngeal Cancer: Case-matched Comparison of Survival and Swallowing Outcomes

Abstract

Background As the incidence of HPV/p16-positve oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) continues to rise, a large population of survivors with treatment related morbidity is emerging. Transoral robotic surgery (TORS) is an excellent surgical option for p16-positive OPSCC but data comparing both survival and swallowing outcomes of this treatment versus radiotherapy/chemoradiotherapy (RT/CRT) remains limited. Methods Data was prospectively collected (05/2014 - 02/2019) in a tertiary care referral center from OPSCC patients treated with curative intent by TORS (+/-post-operative RT/CRT) or RT/CRT. Surgical and non-surgical treatment groups were case-matched for smoking status, T-stage, and N-stage based on AJCC 8th edition staging. Patients who were treated with curative intent by TORS (+/-post-operative RT/CRT) or RT/CRT for OPSCC were included. Overall survival, recurrence free survival, aspiration free survival and gastrostomy tube outcomes were compared using univariate and multivariate statistical analyses. Results A total of 82 patients treated with TORS were case-matched with 61 patients who received RT/CRT. TORS patients demonstrated a significantly (p=0.02) higher overall survival (OS) at 3 years (OS=93.2%) compared to RT/CRT patients (OS=78.9%). No statistically significant difference was seen in recurrence free survival when comparing the two groups. TORS patients demonstrated an aspiration free survival (AFS) of 64.7% compared to 26.1% in RT/CRT patients (p=0.02 Log-Rank, 0.018 Breslow). TORS patients also had significantly (p < 0.01) lower gastrostomy tube placement (13.4%) compared to RT/CRT (22.9%) at any point during treatment. Conclusion Patients undergoing treatment by TORS may have comparable survival and improved swallowing outcomes when compared to those undergoing RT/CRT for HPV-OPSCC.

Surgical Treatment for Advanced Oropharyngeal Cancer: A Narrative Review

“…Several authors agree with the role of surgery in patients with HPV-positive OPSCC, as it enables better comparable results and lower adjuvant radiation doses compared to primary chemoradiotherapy (CRT) treatments [ 17 , 62 , 63 , 64 ].…”