**2. Epidemiology and clinical presentation of glottic cancer**

Laryngeal cancer is the most common malignancy of the upper aerodigestive tract (Fowler, 1997) with Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) data estimating that 12,720 men and women (10,110 men and 2,610 women) were diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 2010. This data estimated that 3600 men and women will die as a result of the disease. The age-adjusted incidence rate was 3.4 per 100,000 men and women per year, and the median age at diagnosis was 65 years of age (SEER, 2011). Squamous cell carcinoma constitutes the overwhelming majority of laryngeal malignancies, with smoking and alcohol abuse as the two most robust etiologic factors.

Malignancy most commonly affects the glottic subsite of the larynx, and the glottis accounts for two thirds of primary laryngeal cancers. Carcinomas of the glottis produce dysphonia at an early stage, and because of poor lymphatic drainage tend not to present with nodal disease (Bouqet, 1988; Groome et al., 2001; Shah et al., 1997). Both of these features allow for single modality therapy of glottic carcinoma in the majority of patients.
