Laryngeal and pharyngeal tumors exhibit a high incidence in Brazil, occupying the sixth position as the most frequent cancer sites in males. The initial diagnosis is usually made with the lesion at an advanced clinical stage, hindering success of any treatment employed. AIM: To evaluate the evolution and prognosis of patients with epidermoid carcinoma of the hypopharynx, considering treatment of choice, complications and estimated 5-year survival. STUDY DESIGN: This is a retrospective study METHODS: Using Kaplan-Meier and exact Fisher test. 60 patients with advanced epidermoid carcinoma of the hypopharynx, with the epicenter located at the pyriform sinus, were enrolled. RESULTS: 43 of the 60 patients were submitted to surgical treatment followed by radiotherapy. Currently 27.9% of the patients are alive free of the disease, 11.6% are alive with the disease, 9.4% died from other causes, 34.8% died due to the disease and 16.3% interrupted the follow-up. The most frequent postoperative complication was salivary fistula. Five patients evolved with local recurrence, 6 with regional recurrence, three with loco-regional recurrence and six with distant metastasis. There was no correlation between small surgical safety margins and survival in the 20 patients presenting recurrences (Fisher test). Applying the actuarial survival curve with the Kaplan-Meier method we obtained a 5-year survival average of 23.3 months. CONCLUSION: The major post-surgical complication in hypopharyngeal carcinoma treatment was salivary fistula, being successfully treated without surgery. Small surgical safety margin did not influence the prognosis, even though it is a failure according to one of the fundamental cancer surgery predicaments. The major feature of treatment failure was loco-regional recurrence. The actuarial five-year survival curve (Kaplan-Meier) averaged 23.3 months.
treatment; pyriform sinus; survival
