Abstract:

Objective  To assess the value of MRI for preoperative T staging of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers. Methods The laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer of 40 patients with pathology-confirmed diagnoses were retrospectively analyzed and staged based on magnetic resonance images. MRI-based staging was compared with pathology-based staging. Results MRI of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers showed vocal cord/pharyngeal wall thickening or the presence of a soft tissue mass. Sensitivity of MRI for assessing invasion was 95.4%（83/87） and positive predictive value was 89.2%（83/93），while the technique failed to detect 4.6% cases of invasion （4/87）. The diagnostic accuracy of MRI for each preoperative T stage was 100%（1/1） for T₁，80%（12/15） for T₂：， 83.3%（5/6） for T₃，and 100% （18/18） for T₄. Overall accuracy was 90% （36/40）. Paired test results showed Kappa=0.843（P<0.05）， indicating good consistency between preoperative MRI staging and pathological staging. Conclusion MRI can reveal the location， shape and extension of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal tumors， suggesting usefulness in preoperative T staging.

Key words: Laryngeal neoplasm, Hypopharyngeal neoplasm, Magnetic resonance imaging （MRI）, Staging