• Information
  1. Types of Head and Neck Cancer in Adults
  2. Parotid Gland Enlargement
  3. Head and Neck Tumors in Children and Adolescents
  4. Cervical Lymphadenopathy Syndromes

A. Types of Head and Neck Cancer in Adults [1]

1. Tongue cancers most common - usually lateral tongue (~25%)
2. Lip cancer - behaves more like skin cancer, good prognosis (~14%)
3. Floor of mouth cancers (~14%)
4. Tonsilar cancers (~12%)
5. Other parts of mouth, total palate, pyriform sinus in ~8% each
6. Nasopharyngeal cancer is ~5% of cases (~1/100,000 in general population)
7. Hypopharynx and oropharynx are least common (~4% each)
8. Nasopharyngeal cancer is relatively common in people of Cantonese/Chinese Descent

B. Parotid Gland Enlargement

1. Unilateral
   1. Salivary Gland Neoplasm
   2. Infiltration by leukemia (especially Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia)
   3. Bacterial Infection
   4. Chronic Sialadenitis
   5. Lymphoma
   6. Multisystem Inflammatory Disease: Castleman's Disease, sarcoidosis
2. Bilateral
   1. Viral Infection - mumps, influenza, EBV, Coxsackie A, HIV, CMV
   2. Sjogren's Syndrome
   3. Sarcoidosis
   4. Acute Liver Failure or Cirrhosis
3. Chronic Pancreatitis
4. Acromegaly
5. Gonadal Hypofunction
6. Diabetes Mellitus

C. Head and Neck Tumors in Children and Adolescents [2]

1. Rhabdomyosarcoma
2. Soft tissue sarcomas
   1. Synovial sarcoma
   2. Fibrosarcoma
   3. Ewing's sarcoma
   4. Peripheral nerve sheath tumor
   5. Primitive neuroectodermal tumor
3. Benign parotid gland tumors
   1. Pleomorphic adenoma
   2. Papillary cystadenoma (Warthin's)
4. Malignant parotid gland tumors
   1. Mucoepidermoid
   2. Acinic cell
   3. Mucosa associated lymphoma of the salivary gland
   4. Lymphoma: Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's

D. Cervical Lymphadenopathy Syndromes

1. Rosai-Dorfman
2. Kikuchi-Fujimoto

References

1. Forastierre A, Koch W, Trotti A, Sidranski D. 2001. NEJM. 345(26):1890
2. McGill TJI and Wu CL. 2002. NEJM. 346(25):1989 (Case Record)