Postcricoid Carcinoma as a Sequel to Radiotherapy for Laryngeal Carcinoma

DURING the past 20 years, scattered reports have appeared in the literature on the development of laryngeal, hypopharyngeal, and esophageal neoplasms occurring in patients previously treated with radiotherapy. For the most part, these have been late sequelae, occasionally as long as 32 years after completion of the initial course of radiation. All of these cases developed within the field of radiation following treatment for benign lesions, such as goiter or tuberculous adenitis. Discussion of this problem must include mention of the rationale of radiotherapy as it was practiced prior to the popularization of the Coutard method. It was then believed that the radiation should be given quickly and in the highest feasible dosage in order to eliminate the disease as rapidly as possible. With refinement in radiation dosage, the use of higher voltage, and the institution of protracted therapy, the complications have decreased. The cases previously cited in the literature