Higher radiation doses after partial laryngectomy may raise the incidence of pneumonia: A retrospective cohort study

Background Currently, studies have shown that a high dose of radiotherapy to the throat have various harmful and adverse effects on the patients’ laryngeal function, resulting in the development of pneumonia. This study aimed to explore how radiotherapy dose affected the probability of pneumonia following laryngeal cancer surgery. Materials and methods A retrospective analysis was done on patients diagnosed with laryngeal cancer between 2010 and 2020 and were treated surgically and with postoperative radiotherapy in the same institution. This study included 108 patients in total, 51 of who were in the low-dose group and 57 of whom were in the high-dose group. Age, gender, the location of laryngeal cancer, the presence or absence of lymph node metastasis, and other demographic and clinical characteristics were collected, and the prevalence of postoperative pneumonia was compared between the two groups. Results The total prevalence of postoperative pneumonia was 59.3%, but there was a significant difference between the two groups(high-dose group 71.9% VS low-dose group 45.1%; p=0.005). A total of 9.3% (10/108) of the patients had readmission due to severe pneumonia, and the rate of readmission due to pneumonia was significantly different between the two groups (high-dose group 15.8% VS low-dose group 2.0%, p=0.032). Additionally, the high-dose group’s prevalence of Dysphagia was significantly higher than the low-dose group’s. According to multivariate logistic modeling, high-dose radiation was a risk factor for pneumonia (OR=4.224, 95%CI =1.603-11.131, p=0.004). Conclusion Pneumonia risk could increase with radiotherapy doses > 50 Gy in the treatment of laryngeal cancer. Therefore, we recommend that when the radiation dose surpasses 50Gy, doctors should pay particular attention to the lung health of patients with laryngeal cancer.