2001 Volume 13 Issue 2 Pages 85-88
Mass screening examinations for the detection of early laryngeal cancer were carried out five times in the past 20 years in Fukui prefecture. A total of 1452 people, 1003 male and 449 female, ranging from 30 to over 90 years of age, underwent the examination. 14 glottic laryngeal cancers were detected.
Of those 14 cases, 13 were Tis or Tla cases and one was a T3. Thus, approximately 1% of the population studied was identified as having laryngeal cancer.
As mentioned in previous reports, this rate was considerably higher than that reported for cancer screening for other organs. Thirteen patients, those diagnosed with Tis or Tla, were cured of cancer by radiation therapy only. Their larynxes were preserved. Therefore, this mass screening contributed to curing patients with laryngeal cancer while preserving their larynxes. On the other hand, this screening process had several weak points, such as the small absolute number of examinees, the high relative number of examinees who were not in a high-risk group and few subsequent checkups for patients with benign laryngeal disease. Taken together, mass screening examinations have proved useful for early detection of laryngeal cancer, and should be continually refined to overcome faults.
