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Background: Our aim was to determine the efficacy of a therapeutic schedule including external radiation and brachytherapy in a consecutive and retrospective series of tonsillar carcinoma patients., Patients and Methods: Ninety-six patients with tonsillar carcinoma were treated between 1988 and 2000 and were followed up for at least for three years. All patients were treated with accelerated hyperfractionated external radiotherapy, 68 patients had additional brachytherapy and 69 patients with advanced stages also received chemotherapy. There was no planned surgery even though 73% had N+ disease. Eleven patients with persistent neck nodes underwent ultimate salvage surgery., Results: The overall three-year survival (OS) was 70%. OS for the T stage was T1 90%, T2 89%, T3 54% and T4 60%. The corresponding numbers for the N stage were N0 61.5%, N1 73%, N2 78% and N3 66%. Accordingly OS was influenced by the T stage (p>0.001) rather than by N stage. Only four patients with salvage surgery had viable tumour cells in the specimen, their survival was not inferior., Discussion: The primary tumour stage is an essential determinant for survival in patients with irradiated tonsillar carcinoma. Neck dissection should be confined only as a salvage procedure.

Handheld mobile phones were introduced in Denmark and Sweden during the late 1980s. This makes the Danish and Swedish populations suitable for a study aimed at testing the hypothesis that long-term mobile phone use increases the risk of parotid gland tumors. In this population-based case-control study, the authors identified all cases aged 20-69 years diagnosed with parotid gland tumor during 2000-2002 in Denmark and certain parts of Sweden. Controls were randomly selected from the study population base. Detailed information about mobile phone use was collected from 60 cases of malignant parotid gland tumors (85% response rate), 112 benign pleomorphic adenomas (88% response rate), and 681 controls (70% response rate). For regular mobile phone use, regardless of duration, the risk estimates for malignant and benign tumors were 0.7 (95% confidence interval: 0.4, 1.3) and 0.9 (95% confidence interval: 0.5, 1.5), respectively. Similar results were found for more than 10 years' duration of mobile phone use. The risk estimate did not increase, regardless of type of phone and amount of use. The authors conclude that the data do not support the hypothesis that mobile phone use is related to an increased risk of parotid gland tumors.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate a single institution's outcome for patients with advanced laryngeal cancer treated with accelerated radiotherapy (RT). Fifty-eight patients with advanced laryngeal cancer (T3/T4N0/N + M0) were treated with curative intent with accelerated RT during the period 1990-1998. Patients received radiotherapy alone or with induction chemotherapy. The 5-year local control (LC) and loco-regional control (LRC) probabilities were both 49% for T3 and 75% for T4 tumors. The 5-year disease-free survival probability was 46% and 68% and overall survival probability was 30% and 39% for T3 and T4 tumors respectively. No significant statistical difference in outcome was found, either between T3 and T4 tumors, or between patients who received induction chemotherapy and those who did not. The treatment results for advanced laryngeal cancer at this institution were comparable to those reported in the literature. The results for T3 and T4 were similar. T4 classification alone should not be an exclusion criterion for larynx preservation. Overall survival was poor, partly because of a high incidence of deaths from intercurrent diseases.