Histologic grading in the clinical evaluation of laryngeal carcinoma

A histologic grading system based on tumor differentiation was applied in a study of 73 patients with epidermoid carcinoma of the larynx treated at the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center of the Pennsylvania State University from 1971 through September 1977. The supraglottic and subglottic primary tumors were more likely to be poorly differentiated than the glottic carcinomas. In general, the more poorly differentiated the primary tumor, the more advanced was the stage of disease, and the higher the incidence of cervical node metastasis. After treatment, grade 3 patients have a higher incidence of treatment failure and cancer death than grade 1 or 2 patients. The findings suggest that a histologic grading system is an important adjunct to the clinical evaluation.