Basaloid squamous cell carcinoma of the hypopharynx

In a retrospective study, clinical, histopathological and immunohistochemical findings of basaloid squamous cell carcinoma (BSCC) of the hypopharynx are analyzed and compared with the literature. Among 196 patients treated for hypopharyngeal carcinoma between January 1993 and December 2000, 6 patients fulfilled the morphological and immunohistochemical criteria of a BSCC. Three primary tumors were initially classified as T(3) and 3 as T(1), 3 presented with lymph node metastases. In no case was the BSCC associated with another primary neoplasm. Two patients developed distant metastases during the follow-up and died from the disease at 26 and 35 months. Four patients are alive with no evidence of disease at 27, 29, 61 and 87 months. We observed a contrast in the clinical behavior between the cases reported in the literature and our cases, as our BSCC of the hypopharynx were not detected at a more advanced stage than were the SCC and were in no case associated with another second primary tumor. However, the number of our cases is too small to draw reliable conclusions.