What is laryngeal precancerous lesion?
Precancerous laryngeal lesion is a disease of the larynx that is not yet laryngeal cancer, but may further develop and deteriorate into laryngeal cancer in the future, and is currently in the pre-cancerous stage.
What laryngeal diseases are precancerous lesions?
There are three types of laryngeal precancerous lesions: vocal cord leukoplakia, laryngeal papilloma, and chronic hypertrophic laryngitis. They are more common in men, with an average age of 50-70 years. It can occur in any part of the larynx, mainly involving the vocal folds, and can occur in one vocal fold, but in 30% of cases, it occurs in both folds. The causes may include smoking (the most common) and excessive alcohol abuse, chronic inflammation, excessive use of the voice, excessive exposure to industrial environments (pollution), etc.
Vocal cord leukoplakia
Vocal cord leukoplakia is a type of laryngeal leukoplakia. Laryngeal leukoplakia occurs mainly in the vocal cords, and leukoplakia in other areas is rare. Vocal cord leukoplakia is a white patch on the mucosal surface of the vocal cords. The pathology is called keratosis because of the presence of hyperkeratosis and hyperkeratosis of the white patches.
There is no keratinized layer on the surface of the normal vocal folds; if a keratinized layer is present, it is called hyperkeratosis. If there is no residual nucleus in the stratum corneum, it is called complete keratinization; if there is a residual nucleus in the stratum corneum, it is called incomplete keratinization. Hyperkeratosis and incomplete keratinization are present in all white spots of the vocal cords. For more information, see “Vocal cord leukoplakia treatment”.
Adult laryngeal papilloma
This disease occurs between the ages of 50 and 60 and is caused by papillomavirus (HPV) infection.
More than 60 types of papilloma viruses have been identified, and HPV types 16, 18, 31, and 33 are high-risk viruses.
Normal vocal folds
Left vocal cord laryngeal papilloma
Papilloma of the right vocal cord
Bilateral papilloma of the vocal folds and pseudovocal folds with multiple papillomas
Right vocal cord papilloma carcinoma
Carcinoma of right vocal cord papilloma
Chronic hypertrophic laryngitis
Chronic hypertrophy (thickening) of the mucosa of the vocal folds, which starts flat and smooth, gradually becomes thickened, rough and finally cancerous.
Hypertrophic laryngitis with cancer of the right vocal cord
Hypertrophic laryngitis with bilateral vocal cord cancer
Treatment of precancerous laryngeal lesions
Treatment of laryngeal precancerous lesions: CO2 laser excision of laryngeal precancerous lesions (laser excision of diseased mucosa of vocal fold leukoplakia, laryngeal papilloma and hypertrophic laryngitis).