Abstract
Most malignant tumors are initially diagnosed by macroscopic appearance with the final diagnoses being established histologically. Malignant tumors developing in the pharynx and larynx are almost squamous cell carcinoma. It is important not to diagnose these carcinomas justly macroscopically before initiating treatment, since it is not rare that the histological diagnoses are different from the macroscopic diagnose. For lesions showing a macroscopic appearance of inflammation, there have been some pharyngeal lesions that are histologically diagnosed as carcinoma in a few cases. In the pharynx, there are not many lesions that are macroscopically diagnosed as a polyp. But among laryngeal lesions diagnosed macroscopically as a polyp, there have been a few cancer cases. As for leukoplakia, there are no examples involving the pharynx. Lesions diagnosed as leukoplakia macroscopically comprise 19% of all tumors in the larynx; histologically 57% are diagnosed as inflammation, 26% as dysplasia and 17% as carcinoma. In other words it is difficult to diagnose laryngeal leukoplakia by macroscopic findings alone.
