Objective: To evaluate the usefulness of ultrasonography in assessing laryngeal cancer. Methods: 72 patients with laryngeal carcinoma proven by surgery and pathology were enrolled. The pre-therapeutic ultrasonography and CT images were retrospectively evaluated, including tumour detection, localisation and invasion of intra-and extralaryngeal structures. A comparative assessment was made between the detection rate, correspondence rate of localisation and sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography and CT. The mobility of the larynx was observed on real-time ultrasonography and compared with laryngoscopy. Results: The detection rate of ultrasonography [63 (87.5%)/72] was lower than that of CT [72 (100.0%)/72] (p50.006). The primary foci were accurately located in 59 (93.7%) of 63 lesions using ultrasonography compared with 70 (97.2%) of 72 lesions using CT (p50.392). In the evaluation of invasion, the sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography were similar to that of CT in most of the intra-and extralaryngeal structures (p50.059-1.000). A higher specificity was obtained during the assessment of the paraglottic space involvement when using ultrasonography than CT (94.9% vs 66.7%, p50.001). For vocal cord fixation, no statistical difference was found between ultrasonography and laryngoscopy (p50.223). Conclusion: Ultrasonography could be used as a valuable supplementary imaging method to CT and laryngoscopy in the assessment of laryngeal carcinoma, even in male adults with some calcifications of the thyroid cartilage. Advances in knowledge: Our study demonstrates that ultrasonography, which has been used scarcely in the larynx, could supply useful information on the detection, localisation and intra-and extralaryngeal invasion of laryngeal carcinoma.

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