[Analysis of the clinical and pathological characteristics of sinonasal neoplasms]

To investigate the clinical and pathological characteristics of sinonasal neoplasms.

A cohort of 333 patients with sinonasal neoplasm, which were confirmed by surgical pathology, were enrolled in this study. The clinicopathological characteristics, in terms of age, sex, location, and disease constituent ratio were retrospectively reviewed.

(1) In this series of patients, there were 200 males and 133 females, aged from 2 to 84 years, with a median of 54 years. The benign to malignant ratio was 1.1:1. As for their origination, 144 tumors arose from the nasal cavity, while, 191 tumors derived from sinus, including 90 from maxillary sinus, 31 from frontal sinus, 46 from ethmoid sinus, and 24 from sphenoidal sinus. (2) Disease constituent ratio decreased in order of epithelial tissue, soft tissue, lymphohematopoietic tissue, bone and cartilaginous tissue, ectopic intracranial tumors. The five most frequent malignant tumors were squamous carcinoma, lymphoma, adenoid cystic carcinoma, malignant melanoma and esthesioneuroblastoma, while, benign tumors ranked in the top five were papilloma, fibroma, osteoma, angioma and ectopic intracranial tumors,respectively. (3) Of 200 cases arising from epithelium, 118 were benign, 82 were malignant, and the benign to malignant ratio was 1.4:1. Of 68 cases from soft tissue, 37 were benign and 31 were malignant tumors (ratio, 1.2:1). Among the 22 cases from bone and cartilaginous tissue, 17 were benign and 5 were malignant (ratio, 3.4:1). With respect to the 29 cases from lymphohematopoietic tissue, the majority of tumors were malignant (28 cases), with only one benign case. In addition, ectopic intracranial tumors were also observed. Besides the above all, 12 cases of other types were found in this work.

Neoplasms from different parts of nasal cavity and paranasal sinus have specific clinical characteristics. The pathological types of these tumors may be highly diverged. The diagnosis and differential diagnosis depend mainly on pathological examination. Comprehensive treatment, which employs surgery in combination with other modalities, is the main strategy for these tumors.