The incidence of laryngeal cancer has tended to increase in the last 40 years. The increase of laryngeal cancer incidence is not only related to the improvement of diagnostic technology and the increase of human life expectancy, but also related to the increase of air pollution and smoking. The number of laryngeal cancer patients in China is currently the highest in the world, about 100,000 people, and the five-year survival rate of laryngeal cancer patients after total laryngectomy has reached over 80%. The key to the prognosis of laryngeal cancer is early diagnosis and treatment. I. Early diagnosis: (1) Those who are above 40 years old and have smoking and drinking habits should be alerted and go to hospital for examination as early as possible if they have persistent hoarseness, swallowing and breathing difficulties. In ENT department, doctors can confirm the diagnosis by examining with special laryngoscope and stroboscope, and also by taking a small piece of biopsy from the laryngeal lesion for examination. (2) Pre-cancerous lesions should be followed up regularly. Common laryngeal precancerous lesions include laryngeal keratosis and laryngeal papilloma that may malign into cancer. The development of normal laryngeal mucosal epithelium from hyperplasia to cancer should go through a process from quantitative to qualitative change, from normal epithelium to atypical hyperplasia, and to a certain extent to carcinoma in situ (this stage may be very short), and then to invasive carcinoma. 2. Treatment: II. Treatment The treatment of laryngeal cancer generally adopts surgical resection, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. For the treatment of early laryngeal malignant tumors, with the development of laryngeal microsurgery and CO2
laser development, the preservation of laryngeal function and prognosis of patients after surgery have been significantly improved. The cancer can be removed with CO2 laser under microscopic support laryngoscope, which can be done without tracheotomy and eliminates the inconvenience of bringing tracheal tube, and the patient can eat normally on the second day after surgery, and can be discharged after about one week of hospitalization. The treatment effect is similar to that of conventional surgical resection in the past, and in some lesions it is even better than conventional surgery. It enables patients to get early diagnosis and treatment. It not only enables the patient to get early and effective treatment, but also reduces the patient’s pain and the patient’s economic burden. For unilateral laryngeal cancer, vertical hemilaryngectomy can be done. If the vocal cords are fixed and the lesions are extensive, total laryngeal excision should be done and cervical lymph node removal should be performed at the same time. In advanced stage of laryngeal cancer, comprehensive treatment is needed, and radiotherapy is also a very effective treatment method.