CT SURVEILLANCE OF THE THORAX IN PATIENTS WITH SQUAMOUS-CELL CARCINOMA OF THE HEAD AND NECK - A PRELIMINARY EXPERIENCE

Purpose: Our goal was to determine the number of malignancies detected by thoracic CT in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCCA) in three clinical settings. Method: We retrospectively examine d 168 thorax CT scans in 93 patients with head and neck SCCA and deter mined the number of malignancies (second primary cancers or metastasis ) (a) at the lime of diagnosis of the primary neck tumor (57 patients) , (b) at approximately yearly intervals following treatment of the pri mary cancer (93 examinations in 43 patients), and (c) at the lime of l ocal/regional recurrence of the neck neoplasm (18 patients). Results: CT detected malignancy in 9 of 57 patients examined during diagnosis o f the neck tumor, in 9 of 43 patients during follow-up, and in 6 of 18 patients evaluated at the time of local/regional neck recurrence. Con clusion: Chest CT demonstrates a high number of additional malignancie s in patients presenting with advanced SCCA of the head and neck.