Pathologic assessment of computerized tomography accuracy for the evaluation of the laryngeal cartilaginous framework in laryngopharyngeal carcinomas.

Sixty-six whole-organ sectioned laryngopharyngectomy specimens removed for cancer during a seven-year period were uniformly examined to determine the accuracy of preoperative high resolution computerized tomography (CT) for detection of cartilaginous involvement. Our results indicate that CT has a high overall specificity (88.2%) but a low sensitivity (47.1%); we observed a high false-negative rate (26.5%) and a fairly low false-positive rate (5.9%). Massive cartilage destruction was easily assessed by CT, whereas both small macroscopic and microscopic neoplastic foci of cartilaginous invasion were missed on CT scans. Moreover, false-positive cases were mainly due to proximity of the tumor to the cartilage. Clinical implications of these results are discussed.