(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- New research reveals patients with advanced head and neck cancer can keep their vocal function if they have a combination of radiation therapy and chemotherapy instead of surgery to remove the larynx.

Doctors from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor found patients who kept their larynx intact had a higher voice-related quality of life than those who had their larynx removed. Swallowing function was about the same in the two groups, but it was much easier to understand speech in patients who kept their larynx. The research also shows 89 percent of patients with their larynx intact could get oral nutrition without supplements, compared to 64 percent who had a laryngectomy. The overall three-year survival rate for all patients was 86 percent.

"The overall survival rate is high for both sets of patients, but those patients who respond well to the initial treatments and can avoid the surgery also avoid the social, emotional and physical side effects, such as cosmetic disfigurement and speech alteration," says Kevin Fung, M.D., lead author of the study and head and neck surgeon at the University of Western Ontario in London, Canada.

The combination of radiation and chemotherapy can increase the levels of toxicity in some patients, but Dr. Fung says maintaining the overall quality of life for those patients justifies the potential for added toxicity.

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