XCIV Juvenile Laryngeal Papillomatosis

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Abstract
Juvenile laryngeal papillomatosis has usually been considered a benign disease. However, there is a small number of cases in which this disease has undergone malignant degeneration. In all of these cases, the patient had received irradiation to the diseased area. A careful perusal of the medical literature has failed to reveal any report of a patient who had juvenile laryngeal papiloomatosis with onset in childhood progressing to malignancy unless he had undergone radiation therapy. There are many cases of malignancy occurring in the larynx of adults with papillomatosis that had not been irradiated. Some characteristics of this disease and the diversity of therapy that has evolved are recounted. The relationship of irradiation to the malignant degeneration of benign laryngeal papillomatosis is discussed. Some reports of the development of malignancy at a previously irradiated site for benign conditions are reviewed. The 8 cases of juvenile laryngeal papillomatosis that advanced to malignancy previously reported in the medical literature are briefly restated. An additional case is related in detail concerning a boy who developed juvenile laryngeal papillomatosis in infancy and then progressed to malignant disease in his early adult life.