A clinical analysis of maxillary cancer

Forty-five patients with maxillary cancer were treated at Kobe University Hospital during the years 1990-1999. We analyzed 35 of there cases that had undergone curative treatment. They were classified by T the classification (UICC, 1997) as two cases with T1, seven with T2, eight with T3, and 18 with T4. The two patients with T1 were treated with radiation alone, and four of the other patients were treated with surgery alone. Eight patients were given irradiation, intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy, and curettage of necotic tumor (combined therapy group); 10 received preoperative intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy, irradiation, and maxillectomy or extended maxillectomy (preoperative treatment group), and 11 underwent extended surgery and postoperative chemotherapy and/or irradiation (postoperative treatment group). The five-year survival rates were 65.1% for all patients, 83.3% for T3 cases, and 41.6% for T4 cases. The five-year survival rates were 48.6% for the combined therapy group, 80% for the preoperative treatment group, and 54.6% for the postoperative treatment group. Although the four cases with T2 who underwent combined therapy all remained disease-free, all three cases with T3 and T4 died of the disease. On the other hand, six of the seven patients with T3 and T4 in the preoperative treatment group remained disease-free. Based on these results, we believe that maxillectomy or extended maxillectomy following intra-arterial chemotherapy and irradiation is the most effective treatment modality for T3 and T4 cases. (author)