Neoplastic invasion of laryngeal cartilage: radiologic diagnosis and therapeutic implications

Cross-sectional imaging plays an indispensable complementary role to endoscopy in the pretherapeutic workup of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancer. Both computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging are suitable for the detection of neoplastic cartilage invasion. Although MRI, due to its high negative predictive value, is now generally considered to be the most suitable imaging method for pretherapeutic evaluation of cartilage invasion CT continues to be commonly performed in many centers for practical reasons. Recent studies have shown that CT may yield acceptable sensitivity for neoplastic invasion of laryngeal cartilage if the diagnostic criteria are selected and combined appropriately. False positive results are inevitable with both CT and MRI because reactive inflammation may lead to overestimation of neoplastic cartilage invasion.