Serial section studies on transglottic cancer

Abstract

Transglottic cancer is the name given to any growth which crosses and invades the deeper tissues above and below the ventricle. Jean Le Roux-Robert (1936) has described this type of growth although he did not use the term. He felt that this type of cancer has its origin in the ventricle. McGavaran et al (1961) used this term to include lesions that invade both supraglottic and subglottic divisions of the larynx and has shown that the yield of metastatic lymph nodes is proportionately higher in this group than from supraglottic or infraglottic lesions alone. Kirschner (1969) in his study of 100 laryngeal cancers by serial sections found transglottic tumours to be very aggressive, infiltrating the laryngeal frame work in most cases. Again in a study of 50 cases of transglottic tumours he has shown that transglottic cancers follow more than one pattern of development regardless of tumour origin (1974).