Hypopharyngeal carcinoma with clinical peritoneal carcinomatosis: a report of two patients.

Most patients with hypopharyngeal carcinomas show advanced disease, either at the primary site or in the neck, at the time of diagnosis. Despite intensive therapy, a great number of recurrences and distant metastases can be observed. The most common metastatic sites are the lung and bone, and only in autopsy cases has peritoneum carcinomatosis been mentioned as a metastatic site. Since January 1992, two of 78 patients (2.3%) with advanced hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) treated initially by chemotherapy in our department developed clinical peritoneal carcinomatosis during their natural courses. Both patients were man patients with advanced locoregional disease at stage T4N3. Their clinical peritoneal carcinomatosis appeared during chemotherapy, with good disease control above the clavicle. Both patients eventually died of sepsis within 1 month after diagnosis of the peritoneal carcinomatosis. The authors suggest that peritoneal carcinomatosis is not as rare as previously believed, and should be included in the differential diagnosis in patients with advanced hypopharyngeal SCC with abdominal symptoms. Peritoneal carcinomatosis appears to be refractory to chemotherapy, and carried a poor prognosis in patients in the present study.