An increasing number of studies have shown that patients with Fanconi's anemia (FA) are at risk for the development of malignancies. We report a case of carcinoma of the tongue in a patient with persistent FA.
The patient was treated for aplastic anemia at 9 years of age. At 14 years of age, a chromosome fragility test revealed a diagnosis of FA. The patient received an HLA-compatible bone marrow transplant from his brother, and showed marked improvement, although chronic graft-versus-host disease and stomatitis developed.
Nine years later, at the age of 23 years, the patient was referred to our department because of pain on the left side of the tongue. On clinical examination, a 46×32 mm ulcerating mass was noted. The histological diagnosis on biopsy was a well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma.
The patient was treated surgically by resection of the tongue carcinoma. Cervical lymph node metastases were found in 8 nodes on the same side of the tongue as the lesion.
Disease recurred 9 months after surgery, and he died of complications of pneumonia 3 months later.
