Cancer Health Center

Note: Some citations in the text of this section are followed by a level of evidence. The PDQ editorial boards use a formal ranking system to help the reader judge the strength of evidence linked to the reported results of a therapeutic strategy. (Refer to the PDQ summary on Levels of Evidence for more information.)

Childhood sarcomas often occur in the head and neck area and they are described in other sections. Unusual pediatric head and neck cancers include nasopharyngeal carcinoma, esthesioneuroblastoma, thyroid tumors, oral cancer, salivary gland cancer, laryngeal carcinoma, papillomatosis, and respiratory tract carcinoma involving the NUT gene on chromosome 15.[1] The prognosis, diagnosis, classification, and treatment of these head and neck cancers are discussed below. It must be emphasized that these cancers are seen very infrequently in patients younger than 15 years, and most of the evidence is derived from case series.

Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) arises in the lining of the nasal cavity and pharynx.[2,3] This tumor accounts for about one-third of all cancers of the upper airways. NPC is very uncommon in children younger than 10 years, but increases in incidence to 0.8 and 1.3 per million per year in children aged 10 to 14 years and in children aged 15 to 19 years, respectively.[4,5] There is a higher frequency of this tumor in North Africa and Southeast Asia.

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma occurs in association with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the virus associated with infectious mononucleosis.[6] The virus can be detected in biopsy specimens of these cancers, and tumor cells can have EBV antigens on their cell surface. Three histologic subtypes are recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO). Type 1 is squamous cell carcinoma, type 2 is nonkeratinizing carcinoma, and type 3 is undifferentiated carcinoma. Children with NPC are more likely to have WHO type 2 or type 3 disease.[5]

This cancer most frequently spreads to lymph nodes in the neck, which may alert the patient, parent, or physician to the presence of this tumor. The tumor may also spread to the nose, mouth, and pharynx, causing snoring, epistaxis, obstruction of the eustachian tubes, or hearing loss; it may also invade the base of the skull, causing cranial nerve palsy or difficulty with movements of the jaw (trismus). Distant metastatic sites may include the bones, lungs, and liver. The location of the primary tumor can be determined by direct inspection of the nasopharynx. A diagnosis can be made from a biopsy of the primary tumor or of enlarged lymph nodes of the neck. Nasopharyngeal carcinomas must be distinguished from all other cancers that can present with enlarged lymph nodes and from other types of cancer in the head and neck area. Thus, diseases such as thyroid cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and Burkitt lymphoma must be considered, as should benign conditions such as nasal angiofibroma, which usually presents with epistaxis in adolescent males, and infections draining into the lymph nodes of the neck.