Efficacy of laser surgery versus radiotherapy for treatment of glottic carcinoma: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Laser surgery and radiotherapy are the two most common ways to treat glottic carcinomas, which is more efficacious and remains controversial. PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched to identify relevant studies of laser surgery versus radiotherapy in patients with glottic carcinomas through April 2017. Sensitivity analysis and subgroup analysis were performed to evaluate heterogeneity. Eighteen studies were selected, which included 2480 patients. Patients who had laser surgery had higher rates of laryngeal preservation (OR 3.852; 95% CI 1.922-7.721) and overall survival (OR 1.388; 95% CI 1.063-1.811) versus who had radiotherapy. No significant differences were observed between laser surgery and radiotherapy on local control (OR 1.186; 95% CI 0.759-1.854), recurrence (OR 0.758; 95% CI 0.445-1.289), or disease-specific survival (OR 1.597; 95% CI 0.887-2.876). There were clinical benefits for patients with glottic carcinoma after laser surgery compared with radiotherapy with respect to survival and laryngeal preservation.