Clinical Study of Sarcomas in Head and Neck

Choi, Doo Young; Nam, Soon Yuhl; Choi, Sun Myung; Yoo, Seung Joo; Kim, Sang Yoon

Abstract

BACKGROUNDS: Head and neck sarcomas constitute a heterogenous group of rare malignant tumors occurring at rare sites. The purpose of this retrospective study is to evaluate the pathologic features, treatment modalities, outcome, patterns of failure, survival, and other prognostic factors. MATERIALS AND METHOD: The medical records of 33 patients whose tumors were diagnosed as head and neck sarcomas and treated at the department of otolaryngology in Asan Medical Center between 1990 to 2001 were reviewed. Potential prognostic factors including age, tumor size, histology, and adjuvant treatment were evlauated.
RESULTS
All 33 of histologic classification consist of : rhabdomyosarcoma (10), angiosarcoma (4), spindle cell sarcoma (4), osteosarcoma (3), follicular dendritic cell sarcoma (2), synovial sarcoma (2), chondrosarcoma (2), malignant fibrous histiocytoma (2), hemangiopericytoma (1), leiomyosarcoma (1), unclassified (2). The ratio of male to female was 1.2 : 1 (19 : 14). The median age was 42 years (range 4-78 years). The mean follow-up period was 24.7 months. At 3 years, the disease-specific survival rates for patients with rhabdomyosarcoma were 100% and patients with other types of sarcoma had 78.0% mean survival. Twenty-three patients (70%) had undergone surgical approach with adjuvant chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Five patients had undergone surgical treatment only. The univariate analysis showed that tumor size is one of the most important prognostic factors for the survival.
CONCLUSION
The rhabdomyosarcoma showed a better survival rate than other sarcomas of head and neck. Tumor size more or less than 5 cm was important prognostic factor for survival. We could not find the proven treatment guidelines, but surgery may be essential to the treatment for head and neck sarcomas.