Laryngeal alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma involving the true vocal fold in an adult: Case report

Adult Laryngeal Pleomorphic Rhabdomyosarcoma: A Rare Entity

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a rare and aggressive cancerous tumor that arises from embryonal mesenchymal cells with skeletal muscle differentiation, and it is exceedingly rare that occurs specifically in the larynx. To date, only 22 instances of laryngeal pleomorphic RMSs have been documented in adults. Consequently, there is limited information available to assist healthcare professionals in effectively handling RMS in the larynx of adult patients. Here, we present an uncommon occurrence involving a 45-year-old man who experienced progressive hoarseness and received a diagnosis of pleomorphic RMS affecting the larynx. Pleomorphic RMS had been pathologically diagnosed after a vertical hemilaryngectomy. Following the surgical intervention, the patient underwent chemotherapy and radiation therapy. As of now, there have been no indications of tumor recurrence.

First Description of Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma of the Larynx in a Young Child

Rhabdomyosarcoma of the larynx has been very rarely described in pediatric population. There are 3 histological subtypes: embryonal, pleomorphic, and alveolar. With regard to the English literature, we present the first case of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma of the larynx ever described in a child. This tumor has been diagnosed on an endoscopic biopsy. Thus, a unilateral arytenoidectomy has been performed. This tumor has a poor prognosis. Lymph node metastases were successfully treated by chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Surgery has shifted from radical to conservative combined with adjuvant treatments.

Adult laryngeal Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma: a case report and literature review

Background

Laryngeal rhabdomyosarcomas (RMSs) mainly occurred in children, while were extremely rare in adults. Consequently, less information was available to guide clinicians to manage adult RMSs in larynx.

Case presentation

A 42-year-old man presented with a 2-year history of gradually worsening hoarseness. Then, he underwent a surgery with suspension laryngoscope with initially being diagnosed as vocal cord cyst. Unexpectedly, the lesion was proved to be embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS), pathologically. Next, he underwent chemoradiotherapy, while the tumor relapsed 18 months after the last treatment. Subsequently, a vertical hemilaryngectomy and a right selective neck dissection was performed, and the chemotherapy according to the anticancer drug sensitivity in vitro was arranged. Until the last check-up 18 months after chemotherapy, the patient did not display clinical or radiological signs of local recurrence and metastases.

Conclusions

Misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis of laryngeal RMSs might appear when tumors presented as smooth protuberance. We reported the first case of laryngeal RMSs in an adult with the multidisciplinary strategy based on the chemosensitivity assay in vitro. Furthermore, a systematic review of the literature was also discussed, highlighting the initial diagnostic pitfalls and subsequent management problems that may occur with this uncommon tumor.

Prognostic factors for laryngeal sarcoma and nomogram development for prediction: a retrospective study based on SEER database

Background

Laryngeal sarcoma is an extremely rare malignant tumor of larynx and usually reported as case reports or small series. At present, there is no research based on big data about the prognostic factors affecting laryngeal sarcoma. Our study aimed to investigate the prognostic survival factors of laryngeal sarcoma and develop a comprehensive nomogram for predicting the survival of laryngeal sarcoma.

Methods

Data were obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database to find patients diagnosed with laryngeal sarcoma from 1998 to 2016. The data were obtained using SEER Stat 8.3.5 software, collated, and analyzed by Excel 2016 software and SPSS (v25.0). Kaplan-Meier curves were used for survival analysis. The variables obtained by univariate analysis were introduced into the Cox proportional hazard model for multivariate analysis. The risk factors affecting the prognosis of laryngeal sarcoma were obtained (P<0.05 indicated statistical significance). The independent prognostic factors of laryngeal sarcoma were integrated and used to construct a nomogram.

Results

A total of 381 patients with laryngeal sarcoma were included. The median age of diagnosis was 67 years. The proportion of patients who had received surgical treatment was 62.73%, while 22.31% of patients had received no surgery. The 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year survival rates were 87%, 76%, 61%, and 45%, respectively. The median survival time was 102.35 months. Univariate analysis showed that increased age, primary site, pathology, pathological grade, and surgical treatment were significantly correlated with patient survival time and were risk factors for the patients' prognosis. Race, gender, and even lymph node metastasis were not significantly correlated with patient prognosis. The risk factors obtained from the univariate analysis were incorporated into the Cox risk model for multivariate analysis, the independent risk factors for prognosis of patients were: age (HR 1.569, 95% CI: 1.358–1.813, P<0.005), pathology (HR 0.834, 95% CI: 0.734–0.948, P<0.005), pathological grade (HR 1.433, 95% CI: 1.164–1.764, P<0.001), surgical treatment (HR 0.778, 95% CI: 0.696–0.870, P<0.000), primary site was excluded (P=0.092). We included all the risk factors from the multi-factor analysis to construct a nomogram, and the C-index value was 0.73, indicating that it was well-calibrated in the medium and long term.

Conclusions

Laryngeal sarcoma is a rare malignant tumor of the larynx, which most often affects people between the ages of 50 and 79 and males. Our study shows that age, pathology, pathological grade, surgical treatment may be the risk factors for patients’ prognosis. Based on this, we constructed a nomogram model with a prediction accuracy of 73% that could help clinicians make decisions on an individual basis.

Role of ancillary techniques in profiling unclassified laryngeal malignancies

Laryngeal biopsies, contrary to biopsies from many other sites of the body, very often contain minute amounts of tumour tissue that may consist of morphologically undifferentiated tumour only. In haematoxylin- and eosin-stained sections, there may be no indicative features of what specific tumour entity that is present. In the larynx, particularly small round cell neoplasms, primary or metastatic, often cause a diagnostic dilemma and where an incorrect diagnosis can induce substantial clinical consequences for the patient (e.g., primary neuroendocrine carcinomas vs metastatic variants, certain sarcomas). If sufficient/representative material has been obtained, the application of immunohistochemistry and/or molecular techniques should in virtually every case reveal the true nature of the malignancy. In cases with sparse amount of material, and therefore a limited number of sections to be cut, a careful and thoughtful stepwise approach is necessary to ascertain a reliable diagnosis, or at least guide the clinician to the most likely diagnoses. With today's advanced and widely available technology with an abundance of markers to discriminate different tumours, the use of the term "undifferentiated" should be largely unnecessary. In the exceptional, and indeed exceedingly rare cases, when a classification is not possible, even after repeat biopsy, we suggest that the laryngeal neoplasm is better termed "unclassified malignant neoplasm" rather than "undifferentiated malignant neoplasm".