Bilateral Carotid Body Tumor Treated with Primary Radiotherapy and Resected Subsequently: Report of a Case and Review of the Literature

Abstract

Carotid body tumors (CBT) are rare benign neoplasms of neural crest origin arising from paraganglia cells located at carotid bifurcation. They are usually treated with surgery and occasionally with radiotherapy (RT) as a definitive treatment. We report a case of a carotid body tumor (CBT) in a 45-year old woman who was treated with RT at another institution with intent of diminishing its size and eventually be operated later. This tumor, located on the left side of the neck, appeared 3 years before and was associated with dysphagia and odynophagia. A computed tomography (CT) revealed a lesion of 4.7 cm in size. The patient received 54 Gy of RT. As the tumor persisted clinically, an angio-CT performed one year later showed a left CBT of the same size and a contralateral lesion of 2cm. The surgical resection of this smaller right lesion was performed first and, of the persistent left lesion, one month later. No technical difficulties were found on the resection of the latter tumor and rather decreased peripheral vascularization was present. The histological findings revealed changes due to RT. In an exhaustive review of the literature, there were no findings of any report of surgical resection of a CBT after the primary RT.