Utility of magnifying endoscopy with narrow band imaging in determining the invasion depth of superficial pharyngeal cancer

<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Magnifying endoscopy with narrow band imaging (ME‐NBI) is useful to diagnose invasion depth of superficial esophageal cancer. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of ME‐NBI of superficial pharyngeal cancer.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>Between April 2008 and June 2012, 146 lesions in 104 patients who underwent ME‐NBI and en bloc resection were retrospectively analyzed. Based on magnifying endoscopic classification, proposed by the Japan Esophageal Society, microvasculature type was classified into B1, B2, and B3.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>B1 alone, B2, and B3 were observed in 128, 14, and 4 lesions, respectively. The frequency of subepithelial cancer were 20.3% (26 of 128), 78.6% (11 of 14), and 100% (4 of 4), respectively (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> < .05). Mean invasion distance were 650 μm, 720.0 μm, and 2256.5 μm. Positive and negative predictive value for diagnosing subepithelial cancer based on the presence of B2 or B3 was 83.3% (15 of 18) and 79.7% (102 of 128).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion</jats:title><jats:p>ME‐NBI is useful to determining invasion depth of superficial pharyngeal cancer. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. <jats:italic>Head Neck</jats:italic> 37: 846–850, 2015</jats:p></jats:sec>