Spontaneous regression of recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue

Abstract

A 73-year-old man presented with well-differentiated squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue (T3N0N0). After the completion of external beam radiotherapy (32 Gy) and oral tegafur-uracil (UFT) administration, the tumor had clinically disappeared. Two years later, a recurrent lesion was confirmed histologically. Without any specific therapy, the tumor gradually and spontaneously regressed, from 4 months after the recurrence was diagnosed, and it had completely disappeared both clinically and by computed tomography imaging at 1 year and 4 months after recurrence. There was no evidence suggesting regrowth of the disease in the patient at 3 years and 7 months after the histological confirmation of tumor recurrence.

Spontaneous regression of cervical lymph node metastasis in a patient with mesopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue: possible association between apoptosis and tumor regression

“…Oya and Ikemura. 22 reported complete SR of recurrent SCC of the tongue 2 years after complete remission of the primary tumor had been achieved with radiotherapy and oral tegafur-uracil administration. Three cases of SR of esophageal SCC have also been reported.…”

Spontaneous regression of squamous cell carcinoma in the setting of dental infection and needle biopsy

“…Little is reported regarding spontaneous regression of head and neck cancer. The first reported case was a patient with SCCa of the left tonsil and base of tongue in 1910, and there are recent reports of floor of mouth and tongue SCCa resolutions 7,8,11 . To our knowledge, spontaneous cervical lymph node metastasis resolution has only been reported once in the head and neck literature; in that report, the size of the metastatic oropharyngeal SCCa deposit decreased radiographically over the course of weeks after the FNA biopsy, and histologic examination of the subsequently resected lymph node showed residual SCCa with evidence of apoptosis 9 .…”

“…6 Spontaneous regression of a primary SCCa in the oral cavity has been reported; however, there have been no reports to our knowledge that identified regression of locoregionally advanced cutaneous SCCa. 7,8 We present a patient with history of prior cutaneous SCCa resection with regional lymph node spread which regressed without any medical treatment over a period of 5 months in the setting of a dental infection and fine needle aspiration (FNA).…”

Spontaneous regression of advanced-stage oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

“…Spontaneous regression of head and neck cancers has been reported previously, including in cases of lymphoma of the oral cavity, 1 and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the tongue, 3 parotid 4 and floor of the mouth. 5 This report presents the case of an older woman whose advanced-stage tonsillar SCC was noted to have spontaneously regressed at seven months.…”