Pediatric Cancer in the Head and Neck

Abstract

Malignant tumors that predominantly occur in the head and neck region in children and adolescents may be grouped according to their primary anatomic locations such as nasal cavities and sinuses, oral cavity and salivary gland, ear region, and thyroid gland. Aside from sarcomas, the most common cancers in nasal cavities and sinuses in pediatric population include nasopharyngeal carcinoma and esthesioneuroblastoma. Non-sarcoma childhood malignancies in oral cavity and salivary gland include mucoepidermoid carcinoma, sialoblastoma, and HPV-related carcinoma. Pediatric ear tumors include paraganglioma and rhabdomyosarcoma, the latter being also common in other head and neck locations such as nasal cavity. Pediatric thyroid cancers include papillary and follicular carcinomas, and medullary thyroid carcinoma. NUT midline carcinoma is a newly described aggressive tumor, the majority arising in midline structures of head and neck or thorax. Melanotic neuroectodermal tumor of infancy is a unique tumor that primarily occurs in the mandible or maxilla. This chapter also briefly discusses lymphomas and sarcomas that may affect head and neck region, but the pathological features of these tumors are similar to the same types of tumors occurring in other anatomic locations outside head and neck region. Therefore readers are referred to other chapters in this book for details.