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Transoral laser microsurgery versus radiotherapy for T1 glottic carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Abstract

Transoral laser microsurgery (TLM) and radiotherapy (RT) are both accepted treatment modalities for glottic cancer. The objective of the study was to assess the oncologic outcomes and life quality of TLM in comparison with RT for T1 glottic carcinoma. We searched Medline/PubMed, Web of knowledge, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, the Wiley online library, Springer, Google, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), etc. We screened the literature, assessed the quality of the studies, and extracted the relevant data through the establishment of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Meta-analysis was done using the Cochrane collaboration’ s RevMan 5.0 for data analysis. A total of 11 studies were included in this meta-analysis. The laryngeal preservation for patients undergoing TLM was significantly better than that for RT (P < 0.00). The laser surgery significantly improved the overall survival of patients with T1 glottic carcinoma (P = 0.04). No statistically significant differences were found between TLM and RT regarding the local control (P = 0.91). The funnel plot demonstrates no apparent publication bias in the overall survival and laryngeal preservation comparison. Our meta-analysis suggested that laser surgery was a preferred method than radiotherapy with respect to significantly better overall survival and laryngeal preservation. But the local control was not significant different. Further prospective randomized controlled studies will be needed.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Hai-Lan Mo and Jie Li for the assistance in performing this study.

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Correspondence to Bing Li.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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There was no external funding source.

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“All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.” Our study is a retrospective review. For this type of study, formal consent is not required.

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Mo, HL., Li, J., Yang, X. et al. Transoral laser microsurgery versus radiotherapy for T1 glottic carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lasers Med Sci 32, 461–467 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-016-2103-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-016-2103-8

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