Dr. Nussenbaum on Organ Preservation for Patients With Larynx Cancer

Brian Nussenbaum, MD, Christy J. and Richard S. Hawes III Professor, Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, director, Head and Neck Surgical Oncology, vice chair of Clinical Affairs, patient safety officer, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, discusses which patients with larynx cancer are eligible for organ preservation surgery.

Patients who should be considered for such surgeries are those in which a partial laryngectomy would be an oncologically sound operation. Surgeons should also be confident in achieving a negative margin of resection, so that the positive margin rates would be very low. The surgery would also lead to good functional outcomes for patients, Nussenbaum adds.

Additional patients to consider are those with a preference to have organ preservation alone versus combined with radiation and/or chemoradiation. Thirdly, organ preservation surgery may be the only necessary, and potentially curative, treatment for select patients.