Histological Pattern of Laryngeal Cancers in Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital

Carcinoma of the larynx is one of the commonest malignant tumours of the upper respiratory system.The main objective of this study was to highlight the histological pattern and evaluate the occurrence of the malignant tumours of the larynx. This was a retrospective study involving 146 patients aged between 36 to 77 years with an average age of 59.7 years. Patients with symptoms and signs of laryngeal tumour were studied at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kumasi for a 10 year period from 2003 to 2012. Biopsies of suspected cases were taken and sent to the Histopathology Laboratory for histological analysis. The study revealed that there was a high occurrence of squamous cell carcinoma resulting in 92.0% of the patients. This was followed by verrucous carcinoma in 3.4% of the patients, adenocarcinoma and adenoid cystic carcinoma in 1.7% of the patients. Lastly, there was neuroendocrine carcinoma in only one patient (0.9%). This study confirmed histologically that the squamous cell carcinoma was the most frequently manifested tumour of the larynx. INTRODUCTION Laryngeal cancer is the second most common type of head and neck cancer worldwide (Chu and Young, 2008). Laryngeal cancers comprised 2-5 % of all malignant diseases diagnosed annually, with the male-to-female ratio of 5-20: 1 (Jemal et al., 2004). Epidemiological data suggest that the aetiology and pathogenesis laryngeal carcinomas are influenced by environmental and lifestyle-related factors such as tobacco use, alcohol consumption and exposure to toxic substances. In addition, dietary factors, irradiation, human papilloma virus infection and laryngopharyngeal reflux seemed to be significant carcinogenic factors. The majority of laryngeal cancers are related to smoking and /or alcohol abuse. Heavy smoking and a low intake of vegetables and fruits increase the risk of laryngeal cancer 19fold © 2013 Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Journal of Science and Technology, Vol. 33, No. 3 (2013), pp16-21 16