SARCOMAS IN THE HEAD AND NECK REGIONS: ANALYSIS OF 78 CASES

Head and neck areas reflect a wide spectrum of soft tissue tumors, which present some difficulties in classification for both the surgeons and the pathologists. Seventy-eight cases of sarcomas of head and neck diagnosed between 1985-1994 in the Department of Pathology, İstanbul University, Cerrahpaşa Medical Faculty are reviewed retrospectively. About 10.9% of sarcomas were located in the head and neck regions. Female-male ratio was 3/4. The ages ranged from 7 months to 85 years, with average of 37. 61.5% of the sarcomas were located in the head and 38.5% in the neck. 89.7% of the tumors were of soft tissue and 10.2% were of bone origin. The most common histologic subtypes were rhabdomyosarcoma (11.5%), synovial sarcoma (7.7%), liposarcoma (6.4%), fibrosarcoma (5.1 %), chondrosarcoma (5.1 %), angiosarcoma (5.1 %), and malignant fibrous histiocytoma (5.1%).