Open AccessClinicopathological Profile and Treatment Outcomes of Sinonasal Small Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma: A Rare Case Series
Author(s) -
Elizabeth Mathew Iype,
Sandeep Suresh,
Shirish Patil,
KR Anila,
Sindhu Nair,
Malu Rafi,
Shaji Thomas
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
indian journal of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.229
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 2231-3796
pISSN - 0973-7707
DOI - 10.1007/s12070-019-01667-1
Subject(s) - medicine , otorhinolaryngology , malignancy , radiation therapy , merkel cell carcinoma , medical record , retrospective cohort study , small cell carcinoma , neuroendocrine tumors , oncology , radiology , carcinoma , surgery
Sinonasal small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma is a rare tumour in the head and neck region. Patients become symptomatic as the disease progresses to advanced stages. They are at risk for recurrence and distant metastasis following treatment. Early diagnosis and treatment have shown to improve the disease prognosis. This is a retrospective analysis of sinonasal small cell neuroendocrine carcinomas that underwent treatment based on institutional protocol. Data was collected from medical records of the patients and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Cell morphology on electron microscopy and immunohistochemistry played a significant role in differentiating small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma from other neuroendocrine tumours. 75% of cases presented in an advanced stage of malignancy. None of the patients had distant metastasis at initial presentation. Equal proportion of cases underwent surgery followed by adjuvant radiation (33.3%) and concurrent chemoradiation (33.3%). 25% of patients had recurrence of disease. The 2-year overall survival rate was 78.8%. Disease-free survival for cases that underwent surgery followed by radiation was higher than that of chemoradiation or radiation alone arms. There has been an improvement in treatment outcomes of sinonasal small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma which is best explained by paradigm shift in multimodality management towards surgery followed by adjuvant treatment.