A surgeon at Miami-based Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center is the first in the U.S. to use a blue laser to treat early glottic cancer, a common type of laryngeal cancer.
David Rosow, MD, an associate professor of otolaryngology and director of the division of laryngology and voice at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, has used the 445-nanometer blue laser on 49 patients diagnosed with cancer in the vocal cords, according to a July 2 hospital news release. Follow-up with the patients one year later showed the laser effectively removes early glottic tumors and that the procedure yields excellent voice outcomes.
Traditionally, these cancers are treated with surgery or radiation. Depending on the size of the tumor, some surgeons have to remove some or all of the vocal cords, which impacts the patient's ability to speak.
"That's one of the advantages of this technique with the blue laser," Dr. Rosow said in the release. "It enables us to spare as much of the vocal fold as possible. The more of the vocal fold that you can spare, the better the potential voice outcome."
Lasers to remove laryngeal cancer date to the 1970s with use of the KTP laser. The option worked well until the company that produces KTP lasers stopped manufacturing it. In 2020, the FDA approved a blue laser treatment.
Dr. Rosow is the third surgeon in the U.S. to use the laser in any surgery and the first to use it to treat cancer, according to the release.