The Role of Surveillance Imaging in Patients with Advanced Laryngeal Cancer

Background: While almost one-third of patients treated for laryngeal cancer will experience disease recurrence, the current National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines do not recommend routine post-treatment imaging follow-up. We aimed to examine the yield of post-treatment imaging surveillance among patients with primary advanced laryngeal cancer. Methods: Patients treated for advanced-stage laryngeal carcinoma between 2000 and 2020 in a tertiary care medical center were retrospectively reviewed. Data collected included demographics, clinical and pathological features, treatment modalities, tumor recurrence data including the diagnostic modality (patient’s symptoms, physical examination, or imaging), and outcome. Results: The cohort included 123 patients with advanced-stage laryngeal cancer. Thirty-five (28.7%) patients experienced disease recurrence with fourteen recurrences (40%) diagnosed by imaging. Patients diagnosed by imaging had a shorter time to recurrence diagnosis (23.8 vs. 45.9 months, p-value = 0.016), with similar 5-year overall and disease-specific survival (20.6% vs. 26.6%, log-rank p-value = 0.53 and 62.1% vs. 59.7%, log-rank p-value = 0.87, respectively). Conclusions: Performance of routine post-treatment imaging follow-up in patients with advanced laryngeal cancer was associated with a shorter time to diagnosis of recurrence and similar survival rates. Imaging follow-up should be considered in cases where clinical follow-up is limited and according to the judgment of the treating physician.