LARYNGEAL LEIOMYOSARCOMA: A RARE MALIGNANT TUMOUR

Laryngeal Leiomyosarcoma

Abstract

Laryngeal malignancies account for approximately one percent of all malignancies diagnosed annually in men. The incidence is roughly 5 per 100,000 populations. Most of these are squamous cell carcinomas, sarcomas or malignant tumours of mesenchymal origin account for only 1 percent [1].
Leiomyosarcoma is a malignant tumour of smooth muscle origin with the reported incidence of 5-6 percent of all soft-tissue sarcomas. Majorities (eighty-five per cent) develop in the extremities and approximately three per cent occur in the head and neck region [2]. This low incidence is due to the scarcity of smooth muscle in the head and neck, where it is limited to vessel walls, the erector pili muscle of the skin, the posterior wall of trachea, and the muscular wall of the middle and lower third of the oesophagus [3]. Mindell et al [4] found that the most common site of presentation in the head and neck were the scalp and superficial soft tissues. Frank reported the first case of laryngeal leiomyosarcoma in 1941 [5-7]. Since then, in the literature there have been approximately 52 reported cases of this laryngeal tumour [8]. We present a case of leiomyosarcoma of the larynx, treated by surgery alone and without any local or regional recurrence, 36 months after the surgery. This is second such case from Pakistan. The first was reported by Abbas et al of Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi [8].
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