Lymph node metastases in malignant tumors of the paranasal sinuses: Prognostic value and treatment

Objective: To assess the frequency of nodal involvement and its prognostic value in malignant tumors of the paranasal sinuses, particularly in maxillary sinus squamous cell carcinoma. Design: Retrospective review. Setting: Tertiary cancer center. Patients: The medical records of 704 consecutive patients surgically treated for malignant tumors of the paranasal sinuses from January 1968 to March 2003 were reviewed. The tumors were staged according to American Joint Committee on Cancer-International Union Against Cancer 2002 classification. Only patients with clinically positive nodes underwent a neck dissection. Main Outcome Measures: Lymph node metastases (at presentation or during follow-up, occurring alone, or with concurrent local recurrence and/or distant metastasis). Also analyzed were local recurrence (occurring alone or with concurrent distant metastasis), distant metastasis (occurring alone), and overall survival. Results: The tumor site was the ethmoid sinus in 305 cases and maxillary sinus in 399 cases. At baseline, 5 patients (1.6%) in the ethmoid sinus group and 33 (8.3%) in the maxillary sinus group presented with positive nodes (P