2017 Volume 120 Issue 6 Pages 825-832
Extrapulmonary small cell carcinoma arising from the pharynx is rare. We have experienced 4 cases of pharyngeal small cell carcinoma. All the patients were male, and the mean age was 66 years old. The primary site was the oropharynx in 2 cases and the hypopharynx in 2 cases. All the patients initially underwent surgical resection, followed by chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy. Three patients died because of distant metastasis. One patient is still alive without disease. Twenty-four cases of pharyngeal small cell carcinoma have been reported to date. An analysis of these 28 cases, including our 4 cases, revealed that 20 of the cases had died because of pharyngeal small cell carcinoma. Thus, pharyngeal small cell carcinoma appears to be associated with a relatively poor prognosis similar to that of pulmonary small cell carcinoma. Patients with T3/4 or metastatic diseases have an especially poor prognosis. When the primary site is resectable with minimum invasion, surgery followed by chemotherapy or chemoradiotherapy might offer a better chance of inhibiting local recurrence, compared with other strategies.
