Objective: Methylthioadenosine phosphorylase is an essential enzyme for the methionine and adenosine salvage pathway in normal cells, frequently inactivated in many different human cancers. The MTAP status could be important for tumor cell sensitivity to adjuvant chemotherapy. To date there are no reports on MTAP status in laryngeal carcinoma. Method: A series of 31 laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas was investigated for MTAP mRNA expression through reverse transcription and quantitative PCR (qPCR) as well as for MTAP gene deletion and/or promoter hypermethylation through qPCR and methylation-specific PCR respectively. Results: Low MTAP mRNA expression was found in 32 % of cases, associated with MTAP gene deletion in 70 % (p< 0.001) but not to MTAP promoter hypermethylation, indicating that in this tumors gene deletion is the main mechanism of MTAP inactivation. Neither low mRNA expression nor gene deletion was associated with any of the clinicopathologic parameters investigated. Conclusion: Given the significance of MTAP status for cell sensitivity to different chemotherapeutic regimes, our results suggest that determination of MTAP inactivation could be useful for adjuvant therapy selection in laryngeal squamous cell carcinomas.