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Updated: Apr 20, 2026
Identification of OTX1 and OTX2 As Two Possible Molecular Markers for Sinonasal Carcinomas and Olfactory Neuroblastomas
Published on: February 28, 2019
A case-control analysis of survival outcomes in sinonasal carcinosarcoma
Tapan D Patel1, Alejandro Vázquez1, Max A Plitt1
1Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ.
Purpose:
Carcinosarcoma is a rare malignant tumor of mixed epithelial and mesenchymal origin. In the head and neck, carcinosarcoma most commonly affects the salivary glands. Primary sinonasal carcinosarcoma (SN-CS) is exceedingly rare.
Methods:
We performed a retrospective analysis of 15 cases of SN-CS obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database from 1973 to 2010. Case-matched cohorts of non-sinonasal carcinosarcoma (NS-CS), salivary gland carcinosarcoma (SG-CS) and carcinosarcoma at all other head and neck sites (NonSNSG-CS) were used for comparison.
Results:
Women made up 60.0% of the SN-CS cohort and whites 73.3%. Tumors originated in the nasal cavity in 46.7% of cases, and from the maxillary sinus in 33.3%. In 66.7% of cases, tumors were poorly differentiated (histologic grades III and IV). Surgery with radiotherapy was the primary treatment modality in 46.7% of cases. Five-year disease-specific survival (DSS) was 48.5% for SN-CS compared to 65.5% for the case-matched SG-CS cohort (p = 0.2950), whereas it was 76.9% for the case-matched NonSNSG-CS cohort (p =0.0406).
Conclusion:
SN-CS is a rare tumor. Here we present the largest known cohort of SN-CS and report on its demographic, clinicopathologic and survival features. Our results suggest that patients with SN-CS have DSS comparable to the case-matched cohort of SG-CS patients. However, SN-CS patients have significantly poor survival outcomes compared to the case-matched cohort of NonSNSG-CS patients.
