ONCOLOGICAL AND FUNCTIONAL OUTCOMES FOLLOWING TRANSORAL CO₂ LASER SURGERY FOR EARLY-STAGE LARYNGEAL CANCER

Methods: Sixty-two patients with histopathologically confirmed early-stage laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma who underwent transoral CO₂ laser surgery between 2000 and 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. Oncological outcomes, recurrence patterns, clinically assessed functional outcomes, organ preservation, and survival were analyzed. Survival analyses were performed using the Kaplan–Meier method, where appropriate.

Results: The median follow-up period was 24 months (mean, 25.9 months; range, 3–89 months). Seven patients (11.3%) developed recurrence, including five local recurrences and two isolated cervical nodal recurrences. Clinical functional outcomes were favorable, with permanent tracheotomy and gastrostomy observed in three patients each (4.8%). Salvage total laryngectomy was performed in five patients. The overall organ preservation rate was 91.9%, while the overall survival and disease-specific survival rates were 91.9% and 96.8%, respectively. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis demonstrated significantly better overall survival among patients with glottic carcinoma than among those with supraglottic carcinoma (95.9% vs. 76.9%; log-rank p = 0.017).

Conclusion: Transoral CO₂ laser surgery provides favorable oncological outcomes together with satisfactory clinical functional outcomes in appropriately selected patients with early-stage laryngeal carcinoma. The high organ preservation rate and encouraging survival outcomes observed in this series support TLS as an effective organ-preserving treatment modality. This study represents one of the earliest comprehensive single-center experiences from Türkiye reporting both oncological and clinically assessed functional outcomes following transoral CO₂ laser surgery for early-stage laryngeal carcinoma. Keywords : Early-stage laryngeal carcinoma; transoral CO₂ laser surgery; organ preservation; oncological outcomes; transoral laser microsurgery