The purpose of this study is to present the clinicopathologic characteristics of 38 patients with malignant lesions of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinus who were managed by surgery and radiation therapy. A retrospective analysis of 38 cases of
cancer
of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses were performed. The patients were divided into two main categories based on primary origin of their tumor. The antral group included tumors confined to the maxillary antrum and those that appeared to have
arisen
in the antrum with subsequent extension in the nasal cavity, orbital cavity or other paranasal sinuses. Non-antral group included tumors arising primarily in the nasal cavity, ethmoid, frontal or sphenoid sinuses, twenty-one cases (55.3%) were
maxillary
(antral) cancers and seventeen cases (44.7%) were non-antral cancers. Nine different tumor types were involved in this study with squamous cell carcinoma being by far the most common (60.5%). Five patients (13.2%) had palpable lymphadenopathy at
diagnosis. Therapy was generally in form of surgery and postoperative radiotherapy (84.2%) and preoperative radiotherapy and surgery (15.8%). Local recurrences occurred in 18 cases, regional nodal metastases developed in 8 cases, and distant
metastases
developed in 4 cases. Three-year survival was 41 percent for the total group, 34 percent for the antral group and 54 percnet for he non-antral group. In conclusions, most of the treatment failure were local or cervical recurrence. So present
survival
figure still leaves much room for improvement. By early diagnosis, exact evaluation and then applying the most appropriate form of primary therapy could improve the cure rate. (Korean J Otolaryngol 38:8, 1995)
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