Oncological Outcomes of Transoral Laser Microsurgery for Early Stage Glottic Cancer with Involvement of the Anterior Commissure.

[OBJECTIVES] To assess the value of carbon dioxide transoral laser microsurgery (CO TOLMS) for early-stage glottic cancer with special regard to involvement of the anterior commissure (AC).

[STUDY DESIGN] Single-center retrospective cohort study.

[SETTING] Grade-A tertiary hospital.

[METHODS] A retrospective analysis of patients with early-stage (Tis-T2) glottic cancer who underwent CO TOLMS. All patients had at least 2 years of follow-up. The univariate and multivariate survival analyses were used to identify the risk factors for recurrence and the Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze OS and DSS rates.

[RESULTS] A total of 102 patients were included in the study. Eleven patients (10.78%) had recurrence. The univariate analysis showed that the recurrence was associated with the AC classification, T staging, tumor size, and tobacco use (P < .05). However, on multivariate analysis, the AC classification was the only independent risk factor for recurrence (P < .001, HR = 3.179). AC classification were distributed as follows: 59 (57.84%) AC0, 29 (28.43%) AC1, 8 (7.84%) AC2, and 6 (5.88%) AC3, 2-year/5-year OS and DSS rates were progressively reduced in the AC0, AC1, AC2, and AC3 groups (P < .001). At the same T staging, the OS rates incrementally decreased as the level of involvement of the AC became higher (P = .004).

[CONCLUSION] CO TOLMS is an effective treatment for early-stage glottic cancer. AC involvement is an independent risk factors for recurrence and poor prognosis. The AC classification system may be better at grading the prognosis of patients with early-stage glottic cancer and has prognostic value independent of T staging.