Surgical Management of Malignant Tumors of the Trachea: Report of Two Cases and Review of Literature

Abstract

Malignant neoplasms occurring from the trachea are extremely rare. Therefore, their clinical characteristics and surgical results have not been thoroughly discussed. These tumors are often misdiagnosed and treated as bronchial asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It is critically important to probe the cause-effect relationship between the medical presentations and the clinical diagnosis. In this report, two cases of tracheal malignancy suffering from dyspnea due to obstruction of the proximal trachea are described, and a review of the literature is presented.

Tracheal cancer – treatment results, prognostic factors and incidence of other neoplasms

“…3, 8 Numerous authors point out that the diagnosis of TC is often delayed due to highly uncharacteristic symptoms, such as “frog in the throat” sensation reported by Howard et al . 8, 10, 13, 18, 23 In our series, one patient had been treated with surgery and RT for thyroid carcinoma until the second histopathological examination was performed and diagnosis of TC was made. Misdiagnosis of TC as thyroid tumour was also described by other authors.…”

“…15 Other authors found second cancers in 8 to 44% of patients (groups over 50 patients), mostly located in lungs or larynx. 8, 13, 15, 21–23, 29 Histological type of the second cancer is usually the same as primary, and the SCC histology predominates.…”

“…13 In spite of the above, second cancers are not very often described among patients with TC and only one large study (270 patients) reported second cancers in 19.6% of TC patients. 8, 13, 15, 21–23 …”