CLINICAL CASES   

Otorinolaringologia 2001 December;51(4):155-8

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Neuroendocrine laryngeal neoplasm. A report of two cases

Saraniti C., Caramanna C., Miceli L., Dispenza C.

Università degli Studi - Palermo Istituto di Clinica Otorinolaringoiatrica «R» *Istituto di Anatomia ed Istologia Patologica

Neuroendocrine ­tumours are ­rare and aggres­sive neo­plasms. The ­most accred­it­ed hypoth­e­sis is ­that ­they ­derive ­from ­cells of the dif­fuse neu­ro­en­do­crine ­system (­APUD). They ­show a pref­er­ence for ­males and ­heavy smok­ers; the ­peak inci­dence is ­found ­between the ­sixth and sev­enth ­decade of ­life. The ­authors ­present two cas­es ­observed ­between 1999 and 2000: a ­case of atyp­i­cal car­ci­noid or mod­er­ate­ly dif­fer­en­tiat­ed neu­ro­en­do­crine ­tumour and a ­case of ­small ­cell car­ci­no­ma or poor­ly dif­fer­en­tiat­ed neu­ro­en­do­crine ­tumour. The CT ­image of the lat­ter is ­shown. The ­authors dis­cuss the his­to­log­i­cal char­ac­ter­is­tics of ­these ­tumours, the impor­tance of ­their inn­nu­no­his­to­chem­i­cal ­study ­which ­allows a ­ready dif­fer­en­tiat­ed diag­no­sis com­pared to oth­er his­to­types, ­such as the laryn­geal par­a­gan­gli­o­ma, mel­a­no­ma and squa­mous car­ci­no­ma ­ofthe lar­ynx for the atyp­i­cal car­ci­noid; malig­nant lym­pho­ma and epi­der­moid ­small ­cell car­ci­no­ma for the ­small ­cell car­ci­no­ma. Treatment is sur­gi­cal for the atyp­i­cal car­ci­noid, where­as ­chemo- and radio­ther­a­py are ­used for the oat ­cell car­ci­no­ma. The 5-­year sur­vi­val ­rate is 48% for atyp­i­cal car­ci­noid and 5% for ­small ­cell car­ci­no­ma.