For patients with laryngeal or hypopharyngeal cancer, preoperative staging plays a critical role in determining appropriate treatment plans and predicting the prognosis. In the staging of laryngeal and hypopharyngeal cancers, the extent of thyroid cartilage invasion is an important criterion for classifying tumors as stage T3 or T4a [1,2]. For localized tumors at stage T3 or below, larynx-preserving treatments may be considered. However, if the cancer is diagnosed as T4a, more invasive treatment…