Cancers of the maxillary sinus

Maxillary sinus cancers are rare as compared with cancers of other sites. Because the onset is insidious, they are at an advanced stage at diagnosis and therefore present a therapeutic challenge for local control. Traditionally, treatment has been surgery or irradiation, or a combination of the two. Local control and survival, however, remains poor. Numerous chemotherapeutic agents have shown activity against squamous cell cancers of the head and neck. In several studies the use of either neoadjuvant or concurrent chemotherapy has improved local control and survival when compared with historical controls. Randomized studies are needed to confirm the benefit of chemotherapy over the standard forms of surgical and radiation therapy.