Cancer of the paranasal sinuses with particular reference to maxillary sinus cancer

Paranasal sinus cancer usually presents at an advanced stage and of 261 patients seen between the years 1964-79 in the Toronto centre only 214 patients could be treated with curative intent, 43% surviving five years. (The overall survival for all patients seen is 33%). Of 112 patients with maxillary sinus cancer, half were suitable for management by radical radiation plus surgery with a corrected five year survival of 51%. Patients with residual disease in the surgical specimen fared badly with a corrected five year survival of 29% compared to 76% for those patients with no residual disease in the surgical specimen. The contribution of surgery is called into question since relapse occurred in seven out of the 26 patients who had no residual disease in the operation specimen, while the operation failed to prevent relapse in 24 out of the 31 patients whose operation specimen did contain residual disease. The group treated by radical radiation alone had a corrected survival at five years of 40%. Most of the failures occurred within the first year.