Soft tissue tumors of the head and neck region

• Published in: HNO Vol. 61; no. 11; pp. 928 - 936
• Main Authors: Laffers, W, Stöhr, G, Göke, F, Wardelmann, E, Keiner, S, Zipfel, M, Schüller, H, Gerstner, A O H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: German
• Published: Germany 01-11-2013
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Child; Child, Preschool; Female; Germany - epidemiology; Head and Neck Neoplasms - diagnosis; Head and Neck Neoplasms - epidemiology; Head and Neck Neoplasms - therapy; Humans; Infant; Male; Middle Aged; Prevalence; Retrospective Studies; Soft Tissue Neoplasms - diagnosis; Soft Tissue Neoplasms - epidemiology; Soft Tissue Neoplasms - therapy; Treatment Outcome; Young Adult; Germany
• ISSN: 1433-0458
• DOI: 10.1007/s00106-013-2755-7

The incidence of soft tissue tumors of the head and neck region is low: 300 and 3 in 100,000 for benign and malignant tumors, respectively. However, sarcomas particularly show a wide variety of different histological subtypes. This article provides an overview of the soft tissue tumors of the head and neck region treated in the authors' institution.
This is a retrospective study including 106 patients treated between 2002 and 2010 due to a soft tissue tumor. Tumor- and patient-specific data were collected (benign/malignant tumor, location, TNM classification, therapy, R classification, grade).
In total, 77 benign tumors, 5 of intermediate benign/malignant nature and 24 sarcomas (with 7 different subtypes) were identified. Whereas the benign and intermediate tumors were treated by surgical removal, in 21 of the 24 sarcomas, treatment comprised a multimodal therapy regimen including radio- and/or chemotherapy.
Whereas benign tumors can be successfully treated by surgical resection, there is no uniform therapy regimen for sarcomas due to the variety of different histological subtypes. Only case-specific interdisciplinary disease management can offer good perspectives for therapeutic success.