Cancer of the external auditory canal and temporal bone

Malignant neoplasms involving the temporal bone are a relatively rare and often misdiagnosed disease. Staging of temporal bone cancer has proven difficult because of the small number of patients with this condition, the various histopathologic and histologic findings reported, and a lack of randomized trials. Of the various staging systems that have been proposed, the Pittsburgh classification appears to be the most widely accepted. A retrospective study of 31 patients with temporal bone malignancy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has led us to propose a modification of the Pittsburgh classification for early-stage lesions. This modification places more emphasis on the site of disease in the canal and less on the size of the primary tumor or degree of bony invasion. This review discusses this staging system, the management of these tumors in a multidisciplinary team approach, reconstructive options, and auditory rehabilitation.