Liposarcoma of the hypopharynx. A case report and review of the literature.

A new case of well differentiated hypopharyngeal liposarcoma is reported. The author reviews the literature about the clinical and histologic features of these tumors. From the 93 head and neck liposarcomas reported 13 are located in the hypopharynx. The mean age of presentation is 61 years and males are largely predominant. Etiology is still unknown. Tumor size does not seem to affect the prognosis. Usually patients do not present with cervical lymph node metastasis nor distant metastasis. Histologic diagnosis according to Enzinger and Weis's classification could be difficult especially to distinguish between lipoma and well differentiated liposarcoma. The main prognostic factor is histologic grade but early recognition combined with a complete surgical excision can result in a decreased local recurrence rate and high survival rate. Low grade tumors often recur locally but distant metastases are rare. From the 8 well differentiated tumors reviewed 6 presented a local recurrence 2 months to 20 years after surgery but only 1 patient died without disease. High grade tumors are much more aggressive locally and metastasize frequently. Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are proposed in selected cases without evidence to be of value.