Carcinoma of the trachea.Clinicopathologic study of 41 cases

Abstract

During a period of 33 years, 41 patients with primary carcinoma of the trachea were treated at Memorial and James Ewing Hospitals. Thirty of these patients had epidermoid carcinoma, 7 had adenoid cystic carcinoma, and 4 had mucus‐secreting adenocarcinoma. In view of the cryptic symptomatology, tracheal carcinoma must be considered in the differential diagnosis in patients with chronic cough, hemoptysis, and negative chest roentgenogram. The prognosis of tracheal carcinoma appears to depend mainly upon size and histologic type of the primary tumor. The prognosis of epidermoid and mucus‐secreting adenocarcinoma appears to be grave. Less than 25 percent of the patients with epidermoid carcinoma survived one year or longer. Adenoid cystic carcinoma carried a much better prognosis, however. These tumors have a slow and insidious course, usually recur, and metastasize several years after initial treatment. Small tracheal tumors can be treated either by endoscopic excision or partial resection of the trachea. In the case of extensive localized disease, the combination of surgery and irradiation is the treatment of choice.

Adenoid cystic carcinomas of the breast and salivary glands (or ‘The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ of exocrine gland carcinomas)

“…After Geschickter's description of ‘adenocystic basal cell carcinoma’ of the breast,8 three adenocystic basal cell carcinomas were reported by Foote and Stewart in 1946,3 but it was only two decades afterwards that Galloway77 at the Mayo clinic described the first series of mammary adenoid cystic carcinomas 8. Since then several groups have described AdCCs of the breast; however due to the relative rarity of this tumour type, most studies are in the form of case reports or small cohorts.…”

CT of adenoid cystic carcinoma of the trachea

“…[3]. Unlike squamous cell carcinoma, which occurs predominantly in smokers [5], adenoid cystic carcinoma appears to be unrelated to smoking [6]. There is no gender predilection, and the average age of patients in one series was 47 [7].…”

Pleomorphic Adenoma of the Trachea Mimicking Bronchial Asthma: Report of a Case

“…1 The predominant types of malignant tracheal tumor are epidermoid carcinoma and salivarygland type tumors, especially adenoid cystic carcinoma, according to different reports. [2][3][4][5] Other types of salivarygland type neoplasms such as pleomorphic adenoma are very rare in the trachea, although they are commonly seen in the parotid gland. [1][2][3][4][5] To our knowledge, only 31 cases of pleomorphic adenoma were reported between 1922 and 2000.…”

“…[2][3][4][5] Other types of salivarygland type neoplasms such as pleomorphic adenoma are very rare in the trachea, although they are commonly seen in the parotid gland. [1][2][3][4][5] To our knowledge, only 31 cases of pleomorphic adenoma were reported between 1922 and 2000. 6 This has increased to 33 with the addition of two more cases reported by Schneider et al 7 and Demirag et al, 8 respectively.…”

“…Because of the lack of early symptoms, which are often nonspecifi c, a correct initial diagnosis is unusual. 1,2 We report a case of pleomorphic adenoma of the trachea, which was initially misdiagnosed as asthma. We also review the literature on this unusual neoplasm.…”