[Malignant paranasal sinus tumors. Diagnosis, therapy and results]

Orbital complications:diagnosis of different rhinological causes

To evaluate the clinical course of orbital complication using a standardised diagnostic pathway. Seventy-three patients with orbital complications underwent a multimodal diagnostic pathway comprising ENT examination, leucocytes/CRP, CT-/MRI-scanning and disease-related data. Twenty-nine patients suffered from rhinosinusitis, 28 from mucoceles, 13 patients from neoplasms and three patients from rheumatic disorders. Clinical examination diagnosed 60 patients with eyelid swelling, 55 patients with ocular pain, 14 patients with diplopia, 4 patients with exophthalmus, 29 patients with visual field defect and 4 patients with visual loss. The diagnostic pathway identified acute rhinosinusitis with a sensitivity/specificity of 90 %/90 %, mucoceles with 79 %/100 %, neoplasms with 100 %/96 % and granulomatosis with polyangiitis with 100 %/100 %, respectively. All patients left the hospital in good general condition and with regular ocular motility; two patients suffered persistent visual loss. The standardised application of a widely accepted diagnostic pathway reliably distinguishes different causes of orbital complication.

Malignant tumors of the sinonasal tract in the pediatric population

CONCLUSION

Sarcoma and lymphoma comprised 75% of 20 cases of pediatric sinonasal malignancies. As regards treatment, all 20 patients received chemotherapy and 6 patients (30%) underwent surgery. The overall 5-year survival rate was 52%, with favorable outcome for solid tumors compared with lymphoma.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to investigate the clinical features and treatment outcomes of sinonasal malignancies in 20 pediatric patients.

METHODS

Clinical features were evaluated and tumors were staged according to the staging system for each histologic type.

RESULTS

The 20 patients consisted of 12 males and 8 females, ranging in age from 1 to 16 years, with a median age of 9.6 years at diagnosis. More than half of the patients presented with nasal obstruction as the primary symptom, and mean symptom duration to diagnosis was 5.4 months. Primary tumor sites included the paranasal sinuses alone in four patients, the nasal cavity alone in eight, and both in eight. Eight tumors were sarcomas and seven were lymphomas. The remaining tumors included three olfactory neuroblastomas and two primitive neuroectodermal tumors. The main treatment modality was chemotherapy rather than surgery. The overall survival rate was 52%, and patients with solid tumors survived significantly longer than those with lymphoma (p = 0.02).

[Clinical and neuroradiological diagnostics of orbital tumors]

Exophthalmus is the leading sign of space-occupying lesions of the orbit. Patients may further present with lid swelling, impaired ocular motility and optic neuropathy including a relative afferent pupillary defect, compressive optic disc edema or optic atrophy. Orbital tumors can be classified into various categories depending on the etiology, as lymphoproliferative lesions (in particular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma as the most common malignant orbital tumor of adulthood), optic nerve and meningeal lesions, lacrimal gland lesions, secondary orbital tumors which extend to the orbit from neighboring structures and metastases. Slightly less common are vasculogenic and cystic lesions including cavernous hemangioma as the most common benign orbital tumor of adulthood and dermoid cysts as the most common benign orbital tumor of childhood. Rhabdomyosarcoma is the most common malignant orbital tumor of childhood but has a low total incidence. Orbital tumors might not only cause symptoms like pain, diplopia and loss of visual acuity but may also lead to esthetically disfiguring changes. Particular attention should be paid to underlying systemic diseases and generalized tumor diseases. This article illustrates the approach to a detailed clinical and neuroradiological assessment which is mandatory for the care of orbital tumor patients.

Malignant neoplasms of the sinonasal tract: report of 71 patients and literature review and analysis

BACKGROUND

The present study aimed to report the characteristics, prognostic factors, and treatment outcomes of 71 cases of malignant neoplasms of the sinonasal tract and literature review and analysis of major report series.

METHODS

Seventy-one consecutive patients diagnosed with primary malignant neoplasm of the sinonasal tract that were treated and followed up at a university hospital between May 2000 and March 2008 were selected for the present study. Thirty-four patients were treated with surgery followed by a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, 15 with surgery alone, 14 with combined radiotherapy and chemotherapy, six with radiotherapy alone, and two with surgery followed by radiotherapy. To find out the major series of related studies over the last 20 years, a literature review of PubMed was performed. In all, we found 42 major series including 8,164 patients with malignant neoplasms of the sinonasal tract.

RESULTS

There were 35 women and 36 men ranging in age from 5 to 80 years, with a median age of 55 years at diagnosis. The primary sites included were paranasal sinuses in 51 and nasal cavity in 20. There were one case of stage I, 20 of stage II, 27 of stage III, and 23 of stage IV. Epithelial tumors constituted 65% of all neoplasms. After a median follow-up of 39 months for surviving patients, 33 patients are alive and without disease, eight are alive with disease, and 30 patients died due to disease. Local recurrence was the most frequent treatment failure. The 5-year disease-free, local control, and overall survival rates were 42.1%, 59.5%, and 54.5%, respectively. On univariate analysis, cervical lymph nodes involvement, primary tumor size, histologic type, response to therapy, and stage of disease were independent prognostic factors for overall survival. In the literature review and by analyzing the data collection from 42 major reported series, the median age was 57 years and male/female ratio was 1.8. Epithelial tumors consisted of 69% of all malignant neoplasms of sinonasal tract and stages III and IV disease constituted 74.7% of all stages. Local recurrence was the dominant treatment failure in nearly all series. Five-year local control and overall survival rates were 56% and 45.5%, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

In this review and by analyzing the large data collection of recent major reported series, we found that malignant neoplasms of the sinonasal tract tend to present at locally advanced stage, with a high frequency of local failure and a moderate to poor outcome. More effective local treatment for improving the local control and overall survival is needed.

Treatment of malignant tumors of the skull base with multi-session radiosurgery

OBJECTIVE

Malignant tumors that involve the skull base pose significant challenges to the clinician because of the proximity of critical neurovascular structures and limited effectiveness of surgical resection without major morbidity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of multi-session radiosurgery in patients with malignancies of the skull base.

METHODS

Clinical and radiographic data for 37 patients treated with image-guided, multi-session radiosurgery between January 2002 and December 2007 were reviewed retrospectively. Lesions were classified according to involvement with the bones of the base of the skull and proximity to the cranial nerves.

RESULTS

Our cohort consisted of 37 patients. Six patients with follow-up periods less than four weeks were eliminated from statistical consideration, thus leaving the data from 31 patients to be analyzed. The median follow-up was 37 weeks. Ten patients (32%) were alive at the end of the follow-up period. At last follow-up, or the time of death from systemic disease, tumor regression or stable local disease was observed in 23 lesions, representing an overall tumor control rate of 74%. For the remainder of lesions, the median time to progression was 24 weeks. The median progression-free survival was 230 weeks. The median overall survival was 39 weeks. In the absence of tumor progression, there were no cranial nerve, brainstem or vascular complications referable specifically to CyberKnife radiosurgery.

CONCLUSION

Our experience suggests that multi-session radiosurgery for the treatment of malignant skull base tumors is comparable to other radiosurgical techniques in progression-free survival, local tumor control, and adverse effects.

[Malignant tumors of the nose and paranasal sinuses in the years 1971-2005 in the material of the Otolaryngology Clinic WIM]

The aim of this study was retrospective analysis of evidence concerning to malignant tumors of the nasal cavity and the paranasal sinuses diagnosed in Otolaryngology Clinic of the Military Institute of the Health Service 1971-2005. The methods of therapy were also discussed.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Material comprised 113 patients (35 females and 78 males) with diagnosis of malignant tumors of the nose and paranasal sinuses. The clinical aspects, sex, age, TNM classification and therapy methods (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy) were analysed.

RESULTS

There were 31% females and 69% males (ratio 1 : 2.23). Each year on average 3.23 cases occurred. The highest morbidity was observed in 1997 and 2001 (6 cases each). In 89 subjects (23 females and 66 males) the neoplasm of epithelial origin were diagnosed. The age range of patients was 14-74 years (mean 68.2 years). The most numerous were groups of 60-69 (50 patients) and 70-79 (44 patients). In 82 cases (over 72%) tumors in advanced stages (T3, T4) were revealed. Two subjects (T1) were opera tem on and others 88 (T2, T3, T4) were treated surgically with subsequent radiotherapy. Three of patients did not agree for therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

The most frequent of malignant tumors of the nose and paranasal sinuses was cancer. The clinical symptoms of tumor were disclosed most often in age of 60-80 years. The method of choice in treatment is surgery combined with postoperative radiation.