Squamous carcinoma of the posterior oropharyngeal wall

We treated 9 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the posterior oropharyngeal wall at the Cancer Institute Hospital, Tokyo. All were men averaging 64.1 years of age. One patient each was stage I, stage II or stage III, and 6 were stage IV. Cervical lymph node metastasis was seen in 6 at initial diagnosis. Retropharyngeal lymph nodes were involved in 4, while 5 had second primary cancer such as esophageal, gastric, head and neck cancer. Radical radiotherapy was done for 3 and surgery as initial treatment in 6. Five-year local control was 50% and 5-year disease-free survival was 22%. Total laryngectomy was done for 4 patients. Six died of oropharyngeal cancer and 1 of second primary cancer. Cancer of posterior pharyngeal wall is relatively rare and the prognosis is considered poorer than other types of oropharyngeal cancer for necessitating study to determine which modality may improve treatment results.