Significance of ploidy in laryngeal cancer.

We studied 48 patients with laryngeal or hypopharyngeal primary tumors with DNA flow cytometry. Twenty-four of the tumors were glottic, 18 were supraglottic, and 6 were from the pyriform sinus. Patients were followed for a minimum of 12 months, with a mean follow-up of 23 months. Twenty-three of the 48 primary tumors (48 percent) were clearly aneuploid, 22 percent were tetraploid, and 30 percent were diploid. We concluded that patients with aneuploid primary tumors, high DNA levels, or both have a significantly better prognosis than those with diploid tumors, and this remained statistically significant when clinical outcome was adjusted for tumor status, stage, and nodal status.