Anaplastic transformation of verrucous carcinoma following radiotherapy

A 58-year-old man with a verrucous carcinoma of the larynx initially underwent partial laryngectomy followed by radiotherapy when the carcinoma recurred locally. Subsequently, he developed an anaplastic spindle cell carcinoma of the larynx ten months after radiotherapy, which eventuated in his death. The role of radiotherapy in the treatment of verrucous carcinoma remains controversial, and the risk of transforming the low-grade verrucous carcinoma to an anaplastic, metastasizing carcinoma is a real, although uncommon, complication.