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Transoral robotic surgery showed good oncologic, functional outcomes
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Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium
Patients with head and neck cancers treated with transoral robotic surgery — or TORS — had good disease control, DFS and OS, according to the findings of a preliminary study presented at the Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium in Chandler, Ariz.
“Disease control and survival rates using TORS appeared to be equivalent or near equivalent to those rates reported with chemoradiation, but with TORS, we need better functional outcome,” Eric Genden, MD, chief of the division of head and neck oncology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, said during the presentation of the results.
To determine the role of TORS in the treatment of oropharyngeal cancer, researchers prospectively evaluated patterns of failure, survival and functional outcomes of 25 patients treated with TORS and compared them with that of 12 patients treated with combined chemoradiation.
The one-year locoregional control was 95%; distant control was 96%; DFS was 86% and OS was 86%. There was one local failure, one distant failure, one second primary failure and one comorbid death.
Patients who received TORS had less acute toxicity two weeks after treatment vs. patients who received chemoradiotherapy. The TORS group had better eating ability than the chemoradiotherapy group (74% vs. 52%) and had improved diet vs. the chemoradiotherapy group (43% vs. 20%).
Thus, TORS was associated with a higher overall functional oral intake scale score vs. that of the chemoradiotherapy group (5.3 vs. 3.2). Both groups had a score of 100% for speech. At three, six, nine and 12 months, however, patients in both groups recovered to baseline and had similar function as determined by their functional oral intake scale scores. – by Christen Haigh
For more information:
- Smith CE. #6. Presented at: Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Symposium; Feb. 25-27, 2010; Chandler, Ariz.
