[Distant metastases of epitheliomas of the upper respiratory and digestive tracts]

Distant metastases of ENT tumors are rare; when analysing 1.666 patients, we found them in 6.5%. They started especially from tumors of the hypopharynx (19.7%), oral cavity (7.6%), oropharynx (5.6%) and larynx (3.2%). 9 metastases were diagnosed, before therapy started, all the others appeared late, even later than 5 years after therapy in some cases of carcinoma of the larynx. The metastases were situated in the lung (71 cases), the skeleton (45 cases), the pleura (11 cases) and the liver (8 cases), but in rare instances in almost every organon. The main examinations for staging are therefore: the radiograph of the chest, the sonography of the abdomen and the scintigraphy of the skeleton. These examinations may be completed, if necessary, by the CT-scan. A patient with distant metastases never could be healed.