Non-epidermoid carcinoma of the larynx: the Thomas Jefferson University experience

Nonepidermoid cancers of the larynx appear with consistency in large series of laryngeal tumors. We reviewed 1135 laryngeal cancers seen over a 24-year period at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and found a 1.7% incidence. This is similar to several other large series. These patients are presented in terms of their sex, age, race, clinical presentations, therapies, and outcomes, and a review of these unusual tumors is given. The recognition of such lesions is important because many require different therapies and have different prognoses than their squamous cell counterparts. The relatively infrequent occurrence of these tumors makes the availability of controlled clinical studies extremely difficult.