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Intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) led to a high rate of long-term local disease control with acceptable acute and late toxicity for patients with oropharyngeal cancer.

Estimated five-year local disease control in more than 400 patients exceeded 90% and freedom from distant metastasis was 85%. Overall survival approached 80%, according to Nicola Caria, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

"To our knowledge this is the largest report of patients receiving intensity-modulated radiotherapy for oropharyngeal cancer," Caria said here during a presentation at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium.

"The results confirm those of previous, smaller studies, and show that IMRT achieves outstanding loco-regional control with a low rate of xerostomia as compared with previously used radiation therapy techniques."

IMRT has been evaluated extensively in oropharyngeal cancer, but prior studies have lacked long-term follow-up and large numbers of patients. Caria presented data from a retrospective analysis of patients treated since 1998 and with a median follow-up of about three years.

The review included 442 patients with squamous-cell histology who had no metastases at initial evaluation. The tonsil and base of the tongue accounted for tumor site in 96% of cases.

Source: MHNSC

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