Laryngeal Chondrosarcoma: A 24-Year Experience at The Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital

Abstract

This paper presents a review of the experience of 12 patients with chondrosarcoma of the larynx treated at The Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, London, over the last 24 years. This represents the largest European series and the third largest in the world. Chondrosarcoma is the most frequent non-epithelial malignant tumor of the larynx, with 83.3% of cases arising from the cricoid cartilage in our series. We have shown that deep wedge biopsy with a CO2 laser, aided by computerized tomography scanning, gives the most reliable diagnosis. Laryngeal chondrosarcoma is characterized by indolent growth, a potential for local recurrence and, infrequently, by metastases. The treatment details of our patients are discussed. Adequate partial resection is often successful and use of CO2 laser as the initial treatment in five of these cases is presented.

Laryngeal Chondrosarcoma: An Exceptional Localisation of a Not Unfrequent Bone Tumor

“…There is a male predominance, estimated between 1.29 : 1 and 4 : 1, and it occurs mostly around the sixth decade (59– 64 years) [3, 4, 6, 7, 9]. Our patient clearly fits in this profile.…”

“…In the head and neck region, chondrosarcomas most frequently occur in the maxillary bone. It is the most frequent nonepithelial tumor in the laryngeal region, accounting for 0.07–2% of all laryngeal cancers [2–6]. …”

Primary chondrosarcoma of the thyroid cartilage: Surgery-based management of a rare case

“…Others prefer magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) owing to its greater accuracy in distinguishing between tumor and other para-laryngeal tissues, with signal strength is low on T1 and high on T2, with a characteristic mosaic pattern (6,12). …”

“…However, cancer-specific recurrence is common, with a reported rate of 18–40% (1,6,8,16). The completeness of initial surgery is crucial to local disease control.…”

“…Pathological findings from a fine-needle aspirate also suggested chondroma or well-differentiated chondrosarcoma. The [F-18]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography is helpful in grading tumors, detecting metastasis and assessing local recurrence (6). The uptake value of 3.3 suggested a malignancy, but with good differentiation; 1.3 is generally considered the limit between benign and malignant lesions.…”