Treatment outcome of maxillary sinus squamous cell carcinoma

BACKGROUND Optimal treatment policies of maxillary sinus carcinoma remain to be defined. METHODS Seventy‐four patients with squamous cell carcinoma of maxillary sinus were treated at Department of Otolaryngology, Asahikawa Medical College between 1983 and 1997. The T classification according to the 1997 International Union Against Cancer was as follows: 9 with T2, 35 with T3, and 30 with T4. Eight patients had lymph node metastasis with N1 at diagnosis. Of 62 patients who started multimodality therapy that comprised preoperative radiochemotherapy including local irradiation with total dose of 50 grays along with concomitant intramaxillary arterial infusion of 5‐fluorouracil with total dose of 5000 mg followed by total or partial maxillectomy, 59 received the complete therapy. Eleven patients had to be treated with radiotherapy alone, and 1 patient received postoperative radiotherapy. The median follow‐up time for surviving patients was 117 months. RESULTS The 5‐year overall survival, disease free survival, and local control (LC) rates for all patients were 58.5%, 63.7%, and 73.6%, respectively. The patients who underwent multimodality therapy showed significantly better 5‐year overall survival, disease free survival, and LC rates as compared with those who underwent radiotherapy alone (68.5% vs. 9.1%; 73.2% vs. 18.2%; 84.0% vs. 18.2%; P < 0.0001 each). Multivariate analysis revealed that T classification and treatment modality are independent predictors for disease free survival. CONCLUSIONS The authors' treatment method, which did not include any complicated techniques, produced higher survival and LC rates because of high effectiveness of multimodality therapy. They concluded that their multimodality therapy could offer a better chance for cure from maxillary sinus carcinoma at many institutions. Cancer 2001;92:1495–503. © 2001 American Cancer Society. Fifty‐nine patients with squamous cell carcinoma of maxillary sinus underwent multimodality therapy that comprised preoperative radiotherapy along with intraarterial infusion of 5‐fluorouracil followed by total or partial maxillectomy. The 5‐year overall survival rate was 69%, the 5‐year disease free survival rate was 73%, and LC rate was 84%.