Survival rates are similar for surgical and non-surgical treatment of hypopharyngeal cancer.
Hypopharyngeal cancer is relatively rare in head and neck surgery, but has a poor prognosis. 5-year survival rates are around 30% to 45%.
For the treatment of early stage hypopharyngeal cancer, surgery with preservation of laryngeal function can achieve good oncologic efficacy and functional preservation, likewise, similar efficacy can be achieved if radiotherapy or chemotherapy is used, and relevant reports also show that with radical radiotherapy, there is no significant difference between the overall and disease-specific survival rates of those with hypopharyngeal cancer and those with radical surgery.
As for the treatment of locally advanced hypopharyngeal cancer remains controversial, surgery plus and postoperative radiotherapy or chemotherapy are the traditional treatments, but with loss of articulatory function. And non-surgical laryngeal preservation therapy, including induction chemotherapy + radiotherapy or simultaneous radiotherapy and chemotherapy, can achieve similar survival rate as surgery plus postoperative, and is expected to preserve laryngeal function. However, there are immediate or long-term toxic side effects.