14382              SQUAMOUS CARCINOMA OF LARYNX

A man aged 73 had a husky voice for 12 month with cough productive of some white frothy sputum.  There was no haemoptysis or dysphagia.  The Wasserman reaction was positive.  Direct laryngoscopy showed a mass involving the true and false cords on the left side.  On biopsy this proved to be a squamous carcinoma and total laryngectomy was accordingly performed.

The specimen consists of the larynx together with the thyroid cartilage, the body and left horn of the hyoid bone, the attached epiglottis and the upper 2 rings of the trachea.  The left lobe of the thyroid gland is present anteriorly.  There is complete malignant destruction of the left true and false vocal cords with extension as a flat plaque for some distance across the midline below the right vocal cord.  Direct extension through the left wall of the larynx has occurred into the deep fascia beneath the left lobe of the thyroid gland.  Histology shows squamous cell carcinoma.