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Objectives Although adjuvant radiotherapy may be indicated in patients with sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma (SNSCC) following primary surgery, some patients choose to forgo recommended postoperative radiation therapy (PORT). This study aimed to elucidate factors associated with patient refusal of recommended PORT in SNSCC and examine overall survival. Methods Retrospective analysis of patients with SNSCC treated with primary surgery from the National Cancer Database diagnosed between 2004 and 2016. A multivariable logistic regression model was created to determine the association between clinical or demographic covariates and likelihood of PORT refusal. Unadjusted Kaplan–Meier estimates, log-rank tests, and a multivariable Cox proportional hazard model were used to assess overall survival. Results A total of 2,231 patients were included in the final analysis, of which 1,456 (65.3%) were males and 73 (3.3%) refused recommended PORT. Patients older than 74 years old were more likely to refuse PORT than those younger than 54 (odds ratio [OR] 3.43, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.84–6.62). Median survival among the entire cohort, those who received recommended PORT, and those who refused PORT was 83.0 months (95% CI: 74.6–97.1), 83.0 months (95% CI: 74.9–98.2), and 63.6 months (95% CI: 37.3–101.4), respectively. Refusal of PORT was not associated with overall survival (hazard ratio: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.69–1.42). Conclusions PORT refusal in patients with SNSCC is rare and was found to be associated with several patient factors. The decision to forgo PORT is not independently associated with overall survival in this cohort. Further study is required to determine the clinical implications of these findings as the treatment decisions are complex.

Background Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma (SNUC) is a rare, aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis, and multimodal therapy is the standard of care. We sought to characterize treatment delays in SNUC managed with surgery and adjuvant radiation and to determine the impact on survival using the National Cancer Database (NCDB). Methods This was a retrospective, population-based cohort study of patients with SNUC between 2004 and 2016 in the NCDB. The intervals of diagnosis to surgery (DTS), surgery to radiation (SRT), and radiation duration (RTD) were examined. Recursive partitioning analysis (RPA) was performed to identify the variables with the greatest impact on survival. The association between treatment delay and overall survival (OS) was then assessed using multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression. Results Of 173 patients who met inclusion criteria, 65.9% were male, average age at diagnosis was 56.6 years, and 5-year OS was 48.1%. Median durations of DTS, SRT, and RTD were 18, 43, and 46 days, respectively. Predictors of treatment delay included Black race, government insurance excluding Medicare/Medicaid, and positive margins. RPA-derived optimal thresholds were 29, 28, and 38 days for DTS, SRT and RTD, respectively. On multivariate analysis, positive margins (hazard ratio [HR]: 4.82; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.28–10.2) and DTS less than 29 days (HR: 2.41; 95% CI: 1.23–4.73) were associated with worse OS. Conclusion Our results likely reflect the aggressive nature of the disease with surgeons taking more invasive disease to the operating room more quickly. Median treatment intervals described may serve as relevant national benchmarks.

Objectives Pituitary carcinoma is a rare entity with fewer than 200 total cases reported in the English literature. Analysis of the population-level data from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) affords the opportunity to study this poorly understood tumor type. Methods The NCDB was queried for site, histology, and metastasis codes corresponding to pituitary carcinoma. Statistical analyses were performed to determine factors associated with overall survival (OS). Results A total of 92 patients with pituitary carcinoma met inclusion criteria. The 1 and 5 years of OS for all patients was 93.3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 88.2–98.6%) and 80.0% (95% CI: 71.6–89.4%), respectively. Patients with invasive primary tumor behavior had 1 and 5 years of OS of 69.2% (95% CI: 48.2–99.5%) and 52.7% (95% CI: 31.2–89.2%), respectively. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that compared with benign primary behavior, invasive behavior had increased all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1,296, 95% CI: 15.1– > 2,000). Surgery without adjuvant radiation or chemotherapy was the most common therapy (48.9%), followed by no treatment (40.2%). Compared with surgery alone, no treatment had worse OS (HR, 11.83, 95% CI: 1.41–99.56). Increasing age and female sex were both associated with increased mortality. Conclusions The most common treatment for pituitary carcinoma is surgery alone followed by no surgery. Surgery alone has significantly better OS compared with no treatment. The efficacy of radiation, chemotherapy, and neurohormonal treatments needs to be examined with prospective studies.

Objectives: A retrospective cohort study of endoscopic endonasal approaches (EEA) to intracranial pathology through a suprasellar approach with nasoseptal flap reconstructions was used to determine the pediatric age groups viable for nasoseptal flap reconstruction based on preoperative radio anatomic analysis of computed tomography (CT) scans and surgical outcomes. Study Design: A total of 16 pediatric patients who underwent EEA with nasoseptal flap reconstruction of a suprasellar defect were retrospectively analyzed for defect size and potential flap coverage using preoperative maxillofacial CT for radioanatomic analysis. Methods: Measurements included potential nasoseptal flap dimensions and dimensions required to reconstruct a suprasellar defect. Measurements and surgical outcomes were compared with determine if the flap size would be sufficient to cover said defects in two pediatric age groups: those older than10 years (average age 14 years) and those younger than 10 years (average age 6 years). Results: Of all patients encountered in this cohort, the only postoperative CSF leak was identified in the population older than 10 years. Intraoperatively, this was a technical error and flap coverage was adequate. Average potential flap length and width are sufficient to cover the average suprasellar defect length and width in both age groups. Conclusion: Although the previous literature has suggested nasoseptal flap coverage may be inadequate in younger patients, our measurements and postoperative outcomes show that the nasoseptal flap is a reliable option in the reconstruction of suprasellar defects in pediatric patients of all ages.

Objective. Meningiomas and schwannomas represent a subset of primary intracranial tumors that are rarely identified exclusively in the paranasal sinuses. Here, we describe our experience with minimally invasive endoscopic endonasal approaches for the treatment of these tumors.Methods. We retrospectively reviewed the clinical, surgical, and radiographic characteristics of adults with pathologically confirmed sinonasal meningiomas and schwannomas located within the paranasal sinuses that were resected via an expanded endoscopic endonasal approach.Results. Five patients (1 male, 4 females) underwent an endoscopic endonasal approach for resection of sinonasal tumor. Clinical symptomatology most commonly included nasal obstruction, in addition to headache, jaw pain, anosmia, and chronic rhinosinusitis. Tumors were located exclusively within the sinonasal cavity and were on average 2.2 cm (range 1.4–3.8 cm). Pathology revealed 2 cases of meningioma and 3 cases of schwannoma. No evidence of tumor recurrence occurred over average followup of 1.5 years (range 0.11–3.9 years).Conclusion. Our case series suggests that an expanded endoscopic endonasal approach with a combined neurosurgical-otorhinolaryngologic team for the resection of sinonasal meningiomas and schwannomas offers an effective treatment option. Further studies that include a larger number of patients over a longer follow-up period are required to compare outcomes between minimally invasive and open approaches.