Pharyngitis is an inflammatory disease, while laryngeal cancer is a tumor. Laryngeal cancer is life-threatening, while pharyngitis is not. Laryngeal cancer occurs mostly in older men, while pharyngitis does not occur in a specific gender or age group. In terms of local symptoms, pharyngitis is a foreign body sensation inside the throat, while laryngeal cancer is often a foreign body sensation in the throat. In pharyngitis, dryness, swelling and itching of the throat occur, while in laryngeal cancer, a sore throat occurs and remains untreated for a long time. Laryngeal cancer may have persistent hoarseness while pharyngitis does not. There are also significant differences in terms of overall systemic symptoms. Pharyngitis is more common and is mainly an inflammation of the mucous membrane of the throat, which does not cause too many systemic symptoms, or at most a fever during bacterial or viral infection. Unlike laryngeal cancer, the growth of cancer is characterized by high energy consumption and infiltrative growth. Therefore, patients with laryngeal cancer will have more obvious malignant quality, weight loss, emaciation, and even more obvious anemia symptoms. It leads to fatigue, weakness and poor mental status. The infiltrative growth of laryngeal cancer and the lump can appear, and the increasing lump can block the airway, causing severe breathing difficulty and breath-holding sensation. Cancer also has the characteristic of being able to metastasize. The disease is mainly metastasized by lymphatic tract, and many of them can be found in swollen lymph nodes in the neck. It should be noted that in the early stage of the disease, laryngeal cancer may not show some symptoms and will only show symptoms similar to pharyngitis. Therefore, when symptoms of pharyngeal discomfort appear, you should go to the hospital for examination and treatment as soon as possible.