title: Squamous carcinoma of the posterior pharyngeal wall.
abstract: We present 70 patients with tumours of the posterior pharyngeal wall, considering tumours of the posterior hypopharyngeal and posterior oropharyngeal wall as one unit. Almost half (45%) of the patients were in poor general condition at the time of presentation, and 60% had Stage III or IV tumours. One-third of the patients were untreated, and surgery was mainly reserved for patients with Stage I and II tumours. The larynx could be preserved in two-thirds of those undergoing surgery. The best current method of repair of the posterior pharyngeal wall after partial pharyngectomy appears to be a revascularized radial forearm flap. The median survival for patients with Stage I tumours was 236 weeks, but for patients with Stages II-IV tumours was only 33 weeks. There was no significant difference between the survival for II-IV stage groups, but there was between Group I and the rest. We identify 2 defects in the UICC classification system: lack of definition of the lateral limit of the posterior pharyngeal wall, and a gross discrepancy between size and T staging of tumours arising primarily from the posterior wall of the hypopharynx.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Liverpool, UK.
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Stell
mesh_terms: D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010610:Pharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D015996:Survival Rate