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Article Type

Case Report

Abstract

Objective The aim of this work was to prospectively and objectively analyze the factors affecting the quality of voice in early glottic cancer treated with radiotherapy (RT) in order to choose the best factors that can be considered to facilitate the best voice quality after RT. Background Voice preservation is an important component in the management of early glottic cancer. RT has been the traditional treatment approach, and has resulted in both excellent control rates and voice preservation. Patients and methods Patients with cT1-T2-NoMo glottic cancer underwent voice quality assessment before treatment and after radical RT. Post-RT voice quality was compared with the voice at diagnosis and the voice of healthy individuals who served as controls. A comprehensive set of voice parameters were measured. The effects of age, smoking history, T stage, and anterior commissure involvement on pretreatment and post-treatment voice quality were analyzed. Results The voice quality data of 50 patients were analyzed after treatment, and significant improvement was seen in the majority of measured parameters. However, perturbation parameters and harmonic-to-noise ratio remained inferior compared with those of controls. A history of smoking and anterior commissure involvement resulted in poorer voice parameters following RT. There was no significant impact of age alone. T2 tumors had an inferior voice quality before treatment, but it did not remain inferior after RT. Conclusion There is considerable improvement in voice quality after RT. Several factors may have specific effects on pretreatment and post-treatment voice quality.

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