Cancer of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses. Prognosis and outcome of treatment.

A retrospective study of 121 patients, 77 men and 44 women, with sino-nasal cancer, admitted to the National University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, during the period 1983 1993, is presented. The median follow-up time was 21 months, (range 3 124). Forty-six percent of the tumors originated from the nasal cavity, 29% from the maxillary sinuses and 5% from the ethmoid sinuses. In 18% of the cases, the site of origin was not clear due to advanced local growth. Sixty-five patients received primary radiation therapy with curative intention of whom 5 underwent secondary surgery. Forty-nine patients underwent primary surgery, 38 of them received postoperative radiation therapy. The overall 5-year survival rate in this material was 35% and the disease-specific 5-year survival was 45%. Patients with well-differentiated squamous cell carcinomas had a significantly higher 5-year survival rate than patients with poorly differentiated carcinomas and patients with regional metastases had a significantly poorer 5-year survival than patients without. The 5-year local control was 48% (41/121). Six of 9 patients with regional metastases at admission were controlled locally, whereas 16 patients developed regional metastases after primary treatment.