T h e results of treatment with radiation therapy of 65 cases of epidermoid carcinoma of the palatine tonsil have been reviewed. The major determinant of prognosis is the stage of the primary lesion. Failure usually results from the inability to control local grossly detectable tumor. Thirteen of thirteen T,lesions but only two of sixteen T, lesions were locally cured with external beam radiation therapy. No difference in survival was noted between patients with no clinical adenopathy vs those with clinically involved movable ipsilateral adenopathy.
Cancer 39:604-608, 1977.
PIDERMOID CARCINOMA OF T H E PALATINE
E tonsil is commonly treated with radiation therapy. In order to investigate the factors which influence prognosis and determine the outcome of treatment, the experience with this tumor at the Yale-New Haven Medical Center has been reviewed.
Methods
The records of all patients with a diagnosis of epidermoid carcinoma of the tonsil seen at the Yale-New Haven Hospital during the years 1959 to 1972 were reviewed. A total of 65 patients were treated with radiation therapy alone in the initial curative attempt, and this group of patients forms the object of this report. All are potentially available for follow-up periods of at least 3 years. Two patients were lost to follow-up and for purposes of survival calculations have been considered dead after the last recorded visit.
A total of 20 other patients were seen but excluded from the study for the following reasons: two were treated elsewhere; two had other primary malignancies; five were treated preoperatively; five were not treated for a variety of reasons; and six received chemotherapy and