Squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal vestibule: a 20-year case series and literature review

Abstract

Squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal vestibule is a rare disease with significant morbidity and mortality, and a five-year recurrence-free survival rate of between 42 and 92 per cent. There are several staging systems: the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) skin and nasoethmoid complex system, the Union International Centre Cancer (UICC) nasal fossa system, and Wang's system. Treatment options include radiotherapy or surgery for early lesions, but more advanced cases require radical surgery with post-operative radiotherapy. We present a case series spanning the last 20 years in one centre, and we compare this series with cases reported in the literature, paying particular attention to staging, treatment and outcome. We found that patients with tumours staged T2 or T3 (Wang system) who received radiotherapy alone did poorly in comparison with those who received surgery or surgery and radiotherapy.