Diagnosis and treatment of head and neck sarcomas: personal experiences

Sarcomas are a rare group of tumors. They do not commonly manifest as malignancies in the head and neck region. The rare nature of these tumors has resulted in a limited number of publications. This is a descriptive study. We included patients with primary sarcomas of the head and neck, observed between 1991 and 2011 in the department of Otorhinolaryngology (University of Chieti, Italy). We studied the following variables: age, gender, race, origin, primary anatomical location of the neoplasm, pathology, diagnosis and type of cancer treatment employed. During the study period, we found 9 patients with head and neck sarcomas. Of this sample, 6 were males, and 3 were females. The man/woman ratio was 2:1. As far as age is concerned, the most affected age range was between 60 and 80 years. The mean age of the patients was 62. As far as pathology is concerned, we found 7 histopathological variations of sarcomas, and the most common type was the leiomyosarcoma. The most widely used treatment modality was surgical treatment. The data in this study show that head and neck sarcomas are rare tumors with high histological variability, which may involve different anatomical sites. Since these are rare and not well-known lesions, further epidemiological studies must be carried out, in order to give us more knowledge about the disease.