Primary oat cell carcinoma of the larynx

A case of oat cell carcinoma of the epiglottis eleven years after radiotherapy to the larynx for squamous cell carcinoma of the vocal cords is presented. There is a 13.5 per cent incidence of a second neoplasm in these cases. This is a very aggressive tumour and a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and multi-drug chemotherapy appears to offer the best hope of cure. The two-year survival rate is only 8.5 per cent.