Laryngeal cancer or cancer of the larynx (or voice box) can be treated with radiation and chemotherapy, skipping removal of the organ itself. Unfortunately, this doesn't apply to everyone.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that determining early into treatment which patients would benefit from the chemoradiation treatment and which would be better off having surgery led to better survival rates than typically expected for this type of cancer.

"Approximately 30 percent to 40 percent of patients with advanced laryngeal cancer will not be cured with chemotherapy and radiation. The survival rates for such patients have traditionally been poor. That's why these patients should be identified as early as possible. When we did that, we found that the survival rate for these patients was markedly improved, as was the survival rate for the group of patients who were successfully treated with chemotherapy and radiation," says study author Gregory Wolf, M.D., professor and chair of otolaryngology at the U-M Medical School.

The study appears in the Feb. 1, 2006 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.