From May to July in 1985, and again in June of 1988 a mass screening for early detection of laryngeal cancer was conducted in Fukui prefecture. All persons who responded to a newspaper add for free voice assessment were examined. A total of 918 people, 542 males and 376 females from 30 to over 90 years of age were studied. The age distribution included 95 people in their thirties, 288 in forties, 288 in their fifties, 152 in their sixties, 84 in their seventies, 8 in their eighties and 1 who was 90 years of age. The screening included a routine indirect mirror laryngoscopic examination. Ten glottic laryngeal cancers were detected, nine of them were Tla cases and one was a T3. Thus, approximately 1.1% of the population studied were identified as having laryngeal cancer. This cancer rate is considerably higher than that reported for cancer screening for other organs. Of the 918 persons screened there were no false positives. These results demonstrate the usefulness of this screening technique for early detection of glottic laryngeal cancer.
