A hystopathological study of thyroarytenoid muscle invasion in early (T1) glottic carcinoma.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Surgical specimens belonging to 16 patients who underwent partial laryngectomy for T1 glottic cancer were subjected to detailed histopathologic examination; 11 of the patients were staged as T1a while 5 were staged as T1b. RESULTS: It was detected that in 11 patients the tumor was confined to the mucosal or submucosal connective layer, and in 5 (31.2%) cases, the tumor invaded the thyroarytenoid (TA) muscle. In cases involving the one-third anterior part of the vocal cords and the anterior commissure, a 50% (4/8) TA muscle invasion was detected. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our finding TA muscle invasion at the rate of 31.2% in our 16 case series clinically staged as T1 revealed that deep invasion did not always impair the vocal cord mobility. Observing TA muscle invasion at the rate of 50% in cases involving the one-third anterior part of the vocal cord and the anterior commissure suggested that TA muscle invasion in the anterior part did not significantly impair mobility.