Booklet: What You Need to Know about Laryngeal Cancer

What Is Cancer?

Cancer is a group of more than 100 different diseases. They all affect the body's basic unit, the cell. Cancer occurs when cells become abnormal and divide without control or order.

Like all other organs of the body, the larynx is made up of cells. Normally, cells divide to produce more cells only when the body needs them. This orderly process helps keep us healthy.

If cells keep dividing when new cells are not needed, a mass of extra tissue forms. This mass of tissue, called a growth or tumor, can be benign or malignant.

• Benign tumors are not cancer. They do not spread to other parts of the body and are seldom a threat to life. Benign tumors can usually be removed, but certain types may return.
• Malignant tumors are cancer. They can invade and destroy nearby healthy tissues and organs. Cancer cells can also break away from the tumor and enter the bloodstream and the lymphatic system. That is how cancer spreads to other parts of the body. This spread is called metastasis.

Cancer of the larynx is also called laryngeal cancer. It can develop in any region of the larynx--the glottis (where the vocal cords are), the supraglottis (the area above the cords), or the subglottis (the area that connects the larynx to the trachea).

If the cancer spreads outside the larynx, it usually goes first to the lymph nodes (sometimes called lymph glands) in the neck. It can also spread to the back of the tongue, other parts of the throat and neck, the lungs, and sometimes other parts of the body.

Cancer that spreads is the same disease and has the same name as the original (primary) cancer. When cancer of the larynx spreads, it is called metastatic laryngeal cancer.

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