MRI Laryngeal Imaging With a Surface Coil

The purpose of this study is to use a new MRI imaging coil developed for enhancing structures made of cartilage to determine if the device can produce improved images of the human larynx. In addition, if enhanced images can be obtained, a further purpose will be to determine if, in patients with laryngeal cancer, whether or not early invasion of cartilage can be detected. Patients with laryngeal cancer will be asked to undergone an MRI scan using this new image-enhancing coil to see if cartilage invasion can be detected. Patients will be followed during and after treatment to determine their ultimate response to treatment. No additional MRI scans for the purposes of this protocol will be performed other than the initial pretreatment scan. We hope to determine if this new MRI imaging device can detect early cancer invasion of the laryngeal cartilages in patients with laryngeal cancer. Since this modality has never been attempted before on the human larynx, we are simply looking for the presence or absence of cartilage destruction. Both conventional CT and conventional MRI are poor at recongnizing this finding. High resolution MRI may allow the detection of this finding or it may not - detection of this finding is the endpoint.