Squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal columella

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled Squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal columella: a retrospective study of 66 cases from the GETTEC (Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2007 Oct 26). Authors are Choussy O Babin E Temam S et al., from the ENT Department, Rouen University Hospital, 1, rue de Germont, 76031, Rouen, France. Squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal columella (SCCNC) is a rare disease.Medical records of 66 patients presenting with columella squamous cell carcinoma in nine French hospitals, from 1980 to 2003, were evaluated to determine the clinical characteristics and current treatment of the disease. Patients underwent one of the three treatments: surgery alone for the T1 lesions, radiotherapy for tumors of T2-T3 and combined (surgery and radiotherapy) for T4 lesions. The 5-year Kaplan-Meier survival test was 39% and no difference was found between the therapeutic groups. SCCNC is difficult to manage and has a poor prognosis. No therapeutic solution has yet been confirmed in the treatment of this pathology. To access the full abstract of the article, click here.