Clinical ocurrence of a Ewing's sarcoma as a retrotonsillar pharyngeal tumour.

Background: Ewing's sarcoma is a malignant tumour which usually arises from bony structures. It can be found in dia- or metaphysis of bones of the ext remities but as well in 50 % of cases in sceletal parts of the trunk. Clini cally patients often present with various symptoms as there are pain, swell ing and progredient loss of function if extremities are involved. But in ma ny cases, Ewing's sarcoma shows a lack of specific symptoms and therefore s tays inappearent for a long time. Case report: A 14-year-old patient compla ined about intermittend nuchal pain and was sent to hospital because of an extensive retropharyngeal swelling. The preoperative imaging showed a tumou r of the soft tissue of the neck. It had reached the cervical spine and aft er surgical treatment it was histologically and molecularbiologically diagn osed as a Ewing's sarcoma arising from the transversal processus of the atl as. Conclusion: Since Ewing's sarcoma may have an immense component of soft tissue it has to be included in the range of differential diagnosis of sof t tissue tumours of the head and neck, e.g., as there are extracranial schw annoma, inflammatory lymph nodes or lymph node metastases and lateral and m edial cysts of the neck.