Correlation between radiological images and pathological results in supraglottic cancer

Abstract

Radiological imaging plays an indispensable, complementary role to endoscopy in the pre-therapeutic assessment of laryngeal cancer. We evaluated the reliability of radiological imaging in determining the extent of cancer and surgical resection, by comparing the results of pre-operative computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging with those for post-operative pathological analysis. Twenty-nine patients who had undergone laryngeal cancer surgery with a diagnosis of supraglottic cancer were reviewed. Imaging reliability was assessed for separate subunit regions of the supraglottic area, the glottic area and the cartilage. The false diagnosis rate for all subunits was 25 per cent. The rate of false diagnosis associated with overstaging was 21 per cent. The rate of false diagnosis associated with understaging was 4 per cent. In order to give the best chance of laryngeal preservation, especially in the case of false positive laryngeal subsites, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging should be combined with pre-operative endoscopy and intra-operative frozen section diagnosis.