Background: Laryngeal tumours may be benign or malignant presenting with progressive voice hoarseness and upper airway obstruction which may be misdiagnosed.
Method: Patients were prospectively recruited over 6years from July 1999 to July 2005 in a tertiary health centre.
Results: Thirty seven cases of laryngeal tumours were seen (30 males (81.1%), 7 females (18.9%). The incidence was 6.2 cases per year. Histological diagnosis was only obtained in 30 patients (25 (83.3%) males, 5 females (16.7%). The age range was 3 months to 75 years with the mean ages (benign 6.1 years, and malignant 47.9 years). Histology of the 30 patients showed 20 (66.7%) to be malignant (Squamous cell carcinoma) out of which 17 (85%) were males and 3 (15%) females with male to female sex ratio of 5.7:1. Ten (33.3%) of the 30 cases were benign out of which 8 were males (80%) and 2 females (20%) with male to female sex ratio of 4:1.Malignant cases who had total laryngectomy, selective neck dissection with radiotherapy lived longer (minimum of 4 years) than those who had only total laryngectomy (maximum of 2(1/2) years) or only radiotherapy (6 months - 1 year). There was recurrent nodal neck lesions in 6 (30%) patients, five of which did not go for radiotherapy after surgery while one had postoperative radiotherapy. Two of these died from carotid artery rupture. Two female patients with malignant tumor who had total laryngectomy had babies born through safe vaginal delivery but eventually succumbed to the disease.
Conclusion: There were more malignant (66.7%) laryngeal tumors than benign (33.3%) lesions with a male preponderance and strong association with cigarette smoking but no alcohol consumption. The mean age for malignant lesions was 47.9 years which signifies a considerably younger population while that of benign lesion was 6.1 years.