In a group of 179 patients treated for recurrent laryngeal papillomato
sis 668 surgeries were performed in the years 1982-1995 in the Departm
ent of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery in Prague. The group
was divided into 77 patients with a juvenile form of papillomatosis a
nd 102 patients with an adult form. The adult form was then divided in
to a multiple (65 patients) and solitary form (37 patients). Three pat
ients with a juvenile form of papillomatosis were irradiated in advanc
e. None of these patients developed a carcinoma. There were 3 cases (1
.7%) of carcinoma in the whole group of patients with histologically v
erified papillomas during repeated previous surgeries, All 3 patients
with malignancy had an adult form of papillomatosis, two with a multip
le form and one with a solitary form. The intervals between the first
treatment for papilloma and the diagnosis of carcinoma was 8, 3 and 2
years. The rates of malignant transformation of papillomas vary in the
literature. We suppose, that because of the generally long interval b
etween the diagnosis of papilloma and that of carcinoma, to make a fin
al conclusion of a certain ratio is very difficult. We envisage that i
n our group of patients with papillomatosis new cases of carcinoma wil
l occur in the future.