Minimally Invasive Transoral Surgical Treatment for Oropharyngeal Carcinoma

In a recent years, oropharyngeal carcinoma has continued to gradually increase throughout the world due to the prevalence of Human papillomavirus(HPV)-associated oropharyngeal carcinoma.Traditionally, the standard form of treatment employed was an open surgical procedure combining mandibulectomy with a free flap graft. However, many reports indicate that this procedure can result in a high degree of postoperative morbidities and poor quality of life when compared with transoral surgery. Furthermore, transoral surgery is a minimally invasive technique which has demonstrated excellent oncologic, aesthetic and functional outcomes. In view of the fact that radiation therapy is regarded as being a relatively effective treatment for HPVassociated oropharyngeal carcinoma, it is a standard procedure for concurrent chemoradiotherapy to be employed in order to increase organ-preservation. However, radiation oncologists have reported severe complications such as dysphagia. At the present time, effective management of this disease has not been established and therefore remains controversial. In this chapter, we describe the present status of transoral resection, and advantages and disadvantages of transoral surgery when compared with available other surgical procedures and chemoradiotherapy.