Cancer of the external auditory canal-diagnostic and treatment

Ear squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a tumor with a poor prognosis, due to a late initial diagnosis because of a concealment by primarily benign symptoms and due to the unfavorable localization including the infiltration of important structures such as the middle ear, mandibular joint or dura.

We retrospectively examined 10 patients, medium age: 63.8 ± 9.3 years between 2002 and 2008 with a histological confirmed SCC of the external auditory canal. The median follow-up period was 20.5 months (range 7-60 months).

The treatment involving surgery, radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy yielded a survival rate of 38.3 ± 11.3 months for T1 and a survival rate of 17.0 ± 3.0 months for T2-T4 tumors. 3/10 patients at T1 stage are under follow-up, all 7/10 (70%) patients at T2 and T4 stage did not survive 5 years.

The prognosis for ear SCC primarily depends on early clinical and histopathological diagnostics and requires a sufficient and standardized staging to determine the therapy involving surgery and radiochemotherapy.