Role of Radiotherapy in T1-T2N0M0 Glottic Carcinoma With Poor Differentiation

There remains no uniform treatment modality for glottic laryngeal carcinoma. Current clinical guidelines broadly recommend surgery or radiotherapy as single-modality treatment for early-stage glottic laryngeal carcinoma. Surgery is the predominant treatment modality for patients with early-stage glottic carcinoma in China. Patients with poorly-differentiated early-stage glottic carcinoma exhibit inferior local control after surgery compared with those with moderately-to-well-differentiated tumours. Data from our previous retrospective study suggest that definitive radiotherapy/postoperative radiotherapy yields superior local control compared with surgery alone for poorly-differentiated early-stage glottic carcinoma. We hypothesize that definitive radiotherapy and postoperative radiotherapy can improve local control rates in patients with poorly-differentiated early-stage glottic squamous cell carcinoma. This study aims to conduct a multicenter, prospective, single-arm phase II clinical trial using intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) for patients with poorly-differentiated early-stage glottic laryngeal carcinoma, to preliminarily evaluate the impact of IMRT on local control rates and long-term survival outcomes in this patient population.