Breast Carcinoma Metastatic to the Ethmoid Sinus: A Case Report

Metastases to nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses

The sinonasal cavities are rare locations for metastases. Metastases to these locations are usually solitary and produce similar symptoms to those of a primary sinonasal tumor. Nasal obstruction and epistaxis are the most frequent symptoms. The maxillary sinus is most frequently involved. The most common primary tumor sites to spread to this region originate in the kidney, breast, thyroid, and prostate, although any malignancy could potentially lead to a metastasis to the paranasal sinuses. The patient's prognosis is usually poor because of the fact that the sinonasal metastasis is usually associated with widespread disseminated disease. In the majority of patients, palliative therapy is the only possible treatment option. Nevertheless, whenever possible, surgical excision either alone or combined with radiotherapy may be useful for palliation of symptoms and, rarely, to achieve prolonged survival. This review considers the most interesting cases reported in the literature that presents metastases to the sinonasal cavities. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: 1847-1854, 2016.

Metastasis to paranasal sinuses and orbita of breast cancer with a rare metachronous tumor of the uterine cervix

Breast cancer metastases are rarely seen in paranasal sinuses or orbit with a poor prognosis, and these cases were published as case reports. Moreover, metachronous tumors following breast cancer diagnosis are somewhat common, but uterine cervix is infrequent in them. In the present case, we report a 61-year-old female patient who had a biopsy-proven metastatic breast cancer to paranasal sinuses and orbita. She also had a cervical uterine cancer which is also unusually diagnosed following breast cancer. Palliative radiotherapy to paranasal sinuses (30 Gy) achieved a good response. However, she died due to leptomeningeal progression.

Endoscopic skull base surgery for sinonasal malignancy

Management of malignant neoplasms of the sinonasal tract and skull base is hampered by the relative low incidence and pathologic diversity of patient presentations. Many studies have reported successful outcomes in the endoscopic management of malignancy since 1996, and these are summarized in this article. Nonsurgical adjuvant therapies are important for locoregional control because surgery occurs in a restricted anatomic space with close margins to critical structures, and distant disease is an ongoing concern in these disorders. There remains a need for collaborative consistent multicenter reporting, and international registries have been established to assist in such efforts.