Research
Vocal fold composition and early glottic carcinoma infiltration
- † Equal contributors
1 Department of Otolaryngology, Gongli Hospital, 219 Miaopu Road, Pudong New Area, Shanghai, 200135, China
2 Department of Pathology, Changhai Hospital, Shanghai, 200433, China
3 Department of Otolaryngology, Ningxia Medical University, Ningxia, 750004, China
4 Department of Otolaryngology, Wanzhou Shanghai hospital, Chongqing, 404000, China
World Journal of Surgical Oncology 2012, 10:178 doi:10.1186/1477-7819-10-178
Published: 30 August 2012Abstract
Background
Current imaging techniques provide only limited information pertaining to the extent of infiltration of laryngeal carcinomas into vocal fold tissue layers. Therefore, it is needed to seek the contribute to the body of knowledge surrounding examination and characterization in laryngeal carcinoma infiltration.
Methods
Excised larynges were collected from 30 male laryngectomy patients with an average age of 43.5 years (ranging 36 to 55 years) and history of smoking (≥10 years) exhibiting T1, T2, or subglottal (normal vocal fold) carcinomas. Vocal folds were preserved via freezing or immersion in paraffin. The depth of the mucosa, submucosa, and muscular layers in both normal vocal folds and tumor tissues of afflicted vocal folds was measured.
Results
The average depths of the mucosa, submucosa, and muscular layers in normal vocal folds were 0.15 ± 0.06 mm, 2.30 ± 0.59 mm, and 2.87 ± 0.88 mm, respectively. Infiltration measurements of T1 tumors showed a depth of 1.62 ± 0.51 mm and 1.32 ± 0.49 mm in frozen sections and paraffin-embedded samples, respectively. Similarly, T2 tumors showed a depth of 2.87 ± 0.68 mm and 2.58 ± 0.67 mm in frozen sections and paraffin-embedded samples, respectively. T1 and T2 tumors occupied 24.8 ± 10 and 48.5 ± 15 percent of the normal vocal fold depth, respectively.
Conclusion
This data provides a baseline for estimating infiltration of laryngeal carcinomas in vocal fold tissue layers, of particular interest to surgeons. This information may be used to assess typical depths of infiltration, thus allowing for more appropriate selection of surgical procedures based on individual patient assessment.
