The preservation of both the organ and its function is important for the treatment of early stage glottic cancer, and radiation therapy is an important and useful option. However, treatment with radiation therapy alone is insufficient. Therefore, to improve the local control rate even for early stage glottic cancer, attempts have been made to individualize treatment with radiation therapy (±chemotherapy) based on T stage and morphological characteristics. This individualized treatment greatly improved the local control rate for early glottic cancer. In the future, more suitable individualization can be achieved by investigating the radiosensitivity of biomarkers using biopsy materials before radiation therapy, in addition to T stage and morphological characteristics. Currently, many biomarkers are being investigated; however, appropriate biomarkers for predicting local control remain unknown.
Keywords: biomarkers; chemoradiotherapy; early glottic carcinoma; radiation therapy.