Clinicopathological investigation of 20 cases of primary tracheal cancer.
OBJECTIVE
Primary tracheal cancer is considered to be relatively rare. Its epidemiology, therapeutic strategy and prognosis are not well understood.


METHODS
We retrospectively investigated the clinicopathological aspects of 20 patients with primary tracheal cancer.


RESULTS
Patients included 11 men and nine women with a mean age of 57.3 years. There were 12 squamous cell carcinomas and eight adenoid cystic carcinomas. Four patients received only palliative therapy. Sixteen patients underwent surgical treatment such as segmental tracheal, laryngotracheal, or carinal resection. One patient with squamous cell carcinoma died of postoperative mediastinitis. Although resected specimens from five patients had tumor positive margins, only one of those patients died after local recurrence and only three patients had postoperative treatment. The 5-year survival rate for patients who underwent surgery was 72.3%.


CONCLUSIONS
Surgical treatment is the first choice therapeutic modality for primary tracheal cancer in consideration of its prognosis. While performing the operation, safety of the anastomosis should take precedence over completeness of resection.
Hazama
Kenji
K
Department of Surgery (E1), Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan. hazama@surg1.med.osaka-u.ac.jp
Miyoshi
Shinichiro
S
Akashi
Akinori
A
Yasumitsu
Tsutomu
T
Maeda
Hajime
H
Nakamura
Kenji
K
Tada
Hiroto
H
Matsuda
Hikaru
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003528:Carcinoma, Adenoid Cystic / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery; D010166:Palliative Care; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015607:Stents; D015996:Survival Rate; D014134:Tracheal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*