text_1: The best treatment for laryngeal cancer? This approach helps decide
text_2: The release focuses on recent research published in the journal JAMA Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery. The research assessed the effectiveness of a treatment technique for laryngeal cancer that exposed patients with advanced (stage 3 or 4) cancer to a one-time chemotherapy treatment that, theoretically, would allow physicians to determine whether patients were responding well to chemotherapy. The idea was that patients who responded well could be treated with chemotherapy and radiation, whereas patients who did not respond well would have surgery to remove the voice box immediately, rather than trying chemotherapy and radiation first. The goal was to improve the five-year survival rate of patients. The researchers reported that this technique — called “induction chemotherapy” — was effective, leading to 79 percent survival rates for patients with advanced laryngeal cancer — which is markedly better than the 66 percent survival rate for those patients who did not receive induction chemotherapy. The release does a nice job describing the historical context of these therapies, how available the techniques are and how the study was conducted, with one exception. The release doesn’t mention that this was a retrospective, observational study, not a clinical trial, which is an important limitation. Correlation does not equal causation. Nor does the release provide any costs associated with any approach. People don’t want to lose the power of speech. Whether it’s reading bedtime stories to one’s children or talking about your day with loved ones, speech is an important part of interpersonal communication. Our voices are part of who we are and how we connect with others. What’s more, being able to talk can be a key part of professional life for everyone from teachers and salespeople to reporters and, well, doctors. For that reason, many patients dealing with laryngeal cancer want to do whatever can be done to spare their larynx, or voice box, from surgery. If new techniques can help patients make more informed decisions about the trade-off between survival rate and laryngeal surgery, that’s important news for patients and medical personnel. The release does a fair job of addressing the new findings responsibly. It stresses that there are many options and no one-size-fits-all treatment.