title: Differential diagnosis and treatment options in paranasal sinus cancers.
abstract: Paranasal sinus malignancies are challenging to treat. Most patients present with advanced lesions, often with intracranial or intraorbital extension, and have a poor overall prognosis. Given the low incidence and diverse pathologies of paranasal sinus cancers, it is extremely difficult to perform prospective, randomized clinical trials to compare different treatment approaches. Improving the prognosis of these cancers continues to be a difficult task, even in light of advances in surgical techniques,radiation delivery techniques, and new chemotherapeutic agents. Cranio-facial resection techniques developed in the past few decades have cured many patients with skull base invasion, who would have been considered unresectable in the past. Furthermore, improvements in radiation therapy can allow more accurate administration to the desired region, with decreased damage to surrounding structures such as the orbit and brain. Aggressive and oncologically sound surgical resection combined with radiation therapy remains the treatment of choice for most patients.Finally, advances in the diagnosis and staging by use of molecular or DNA markers of tumor behavior may allow for more directed therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75390-9035, USA. larry.myers@utsouthwestern.edu
authors.forename: Larry L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: Lance E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Oxford
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D003528:Carcinoma, Adenoid Cystic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003399:Craniotomy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D018304:Esthesioneuroblastoma, Olfactory / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000628:therapy; D008545:Melanoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010255:Paranasal Sinus Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D010256:Paranasal Sinuses / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D011379:Prognosis