Abstract
A clinical study was conducted on a consecutive series of 223 malignant tumors of the larynx treated at the Department of Otolaryngology, Mie University Hospital during the 20 years from 1961 to 1980.
The results obtained were as follows.
1. There were 207 males and 16 females with a ratio of 12.9:1.
2. Eighty-eight percent of the tumors occurred in the 5th, 6th and 7th decades of life.
3. Hoarseness was the most frequent complaint in patients with glottic lesions. On the other hand, sore throat aggravated on swallowing was a characteristic complaint in patients with supraglottic lesions.
4. Squamous cell carcinoma was the most common malignant tumor constituting 95.5% of all the cases, whereas there were only two cases of sarcoma.
5. According to the TNM classification of malignant tumors proposed by the UICC (1978), there were 82 tumors (36%) of supraglottic origin, 122 (54.7%) of glottic, 9 (4.0%) of subglottic and 10 (4.5%) massive tumors without a distinguishable site of origin. Of these, 83 (37.6%) were classified as Stage I, 52 (23.5%) as Stage II, 61 (27.6%) as Stage III and 25 (23.5%) as Stage IV.
6. The crude 5-year survival rate of 221 cases of carcinoma was 70.3%. Carcinomas which originated in the supraglottic region were more lethal than those which had originated in the glottic or subglottic region.
