In this paper a 79 year old man of secondary invasive carcinoma arising from erythroplakia of soft palate was reported.
He was admitted to Tohoku University Hospital of Dentistry on November 11, 1981.
He had not been aware of the erythroplakia untill was indicated by a dentist a week before admission.
He had suffered from pulmonary tuberculosis 7 years ago.
Routine laboratory examinations were within normal limits.
Radiographic examination revealed a thumb tip-sized modular calcification as tuberculous focus in the pulmonary hilar region of right lung.
The regional lymph nodes were normal in size and consistency. Inspection of the oral cavity showed two erythemas in the right soft palate. One was 20×10 mm in size, flat, red velvety, and sharply circumscribed. Another was 20×15 mm in size, slightly elevated, granular, red, slightly indulated and well demarkated. The former was clinically diagnosed homogeneous erythroplakia, the latter granular erythroplakia.
Both erythemas were clearly stained dark blue by application of toluidine blue to the soft palate.
Microscopic examination of a biopsy specimen of homogeneous erythroplakia showed carcinoma in situ and granular erythroplakia invasive carcinoma (squamous cell carcinoma).
He was treated by irradiation (Linac X-ray, 60 gy.) and chemotherapy (Mifurol, 12.8 g). Therefore these erythermas remarkably disappeared, and histological examination showed no atypical epithelium and carcinoma. 3 years and 5 months postirradiatedly there are no recurrences or detectable metastases.
