Background:

Head and neck paragangliomas (HNP) represent 3% of extra-adrenal presentation sites. They are benign tumors with high vascularity and low proliferation for which surgery is the primary treatment, with control rates of 78-93%. External radiotherapy is used in unresectable tumors with high control rates.

Objective:

To report the response of HNP to fractionated conformal radiotherapy (FCR) treatment.

Methods:

A review of cases treated with radical or adjuvant purpose over a 10 years period is presented. The characteristics of the series and the response rate at 5 years are described, with survival analysis.

Results:

We included 41 cases. The average size of the lesions was 4.7 cm, and the most frequent location was the carotid region with 27 cases (65.8%). The treatment modality was radical in 26 cases (63.4%). The 5-year response was 96.4% with a partial regression rate of 67.8% and stable disease of 28.6%.

Conclusions:

FCR is an effective treatment for control of the clinical course of the HNP, in the dose range of 45-50 Gy within which no complications are observed. The type of response is bimodal, stabilizing the growth of the lesion or inducing a slow partial regression over time.