An introduction to head and neck pathology

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Head and neck pathology is squamous cell carcinoma and weird stuff.

The thyroid gland is dealt with in its own article, as is pathology of the salivary gland.

Cytopathology of the head and neck is dealt with in a separate article called head and neck cytopathology.

Clinical

Common lesions:[1]

  • Leukoplakia.
    • Homogeneous.
    • Non-homogeneous.
  • Erythroplakia - more worrisome for cancer than leukoplakia.

Leukoplakia

Hairy leukoplakia is dealt with in a separate section.
The typical benign leukoplakia is dealt with in a separate section.

General

  • Non-specific clinical finding - may be benign or malignant.
  • Associated with tobacco use.[2]

Risk of malignancy:

  • In twos series ~13% were associated with an invasive lesion.[3][4]
  • Non-homogenous leukoplakia has a greater risk of malignancy than homogenous.[4]
  • Location matters - floor of mouth and ventral tongue lesions higher risk for malignancy.[5]

Gross

  • White lesion - may be subdivided:
    • Non-homogenous.
    • Homogenous.

Microscopic

Features:[1]

DDx:

Erythroplakia

General

  • Non-specific clinical finding - may be benign or malignant.
  • Strong association with non-keratinizing squamous lesions (invasive and dysplastic).

Microscopic

Features:[1]

  • Unidentified red lesion.
  • Often erosion.

Overview

Cysts

Larynx

Oral

Infectious:

Other:

Vascular:

Pigmentation:

Nasal cavity/nose

Benign cystic lesions

Cytology dealt with in Head and neck cytopathology.

Cystic lesions - overview

Lateral cystic lesions:

Medial cystic lesions:

Lateral & medial lesions:

Rathke cleft cyst

  • Arises from intermediate lobe - embryonic remnant.
  • Benign cystic lesion without calcification.
  • Related to craniopharyngioma.

Thyroglossal duct cyst

Branchial cleft cyst

  • AKA branchial cleft remnant.

General

  • Benign congenital thingy in the lateral neck.[8]
  • Most common cystic neck lesion in young adults.[9]
  • Treatment: excision.

Gross

  • Lateral neck mass.

Image - clinical:

Microscopic

Features:

  • Cystic space lined by squamous epithelium - usually.
    • +/-Inflammation.
  • Connective tissue:
    • +/-Adipose tissue.
    • +/-Cartilage.
    • +/-Bone.
    • +/-Muscle.

DDx:

Images

IHC

Benign lymphoepithelial lesion

  • AKA benign lymphoepithelial cyst

General

  • Usually parotid gland.
  • Associated with autoimmune disease, e.g. Sjoegren disease, may not remain benign.[10]

Microscopic

Features:

  • Lymphocytes.
  • Ductal epithelial cells.[11]

Note:

IHC

  • CD20, CD3 -- mixed population.
  • Kappa ~ lambda.

Other benign

Vocal cord nodule

  • AKA singer's nodule.
  • AKA vocal cord polyp.

Squamous papilloma

Caruncle lesion is dealt with in papilloma of the caruncle.
The lesion in the esophagus is dealt with in squamous papilloma of the esophagus.

Pemphigus vulgaris

General

  • May lead to blindness.
  • Oral lesion is classically: first to show & last to go.
    • Oral lesions usually precede the skin lesions.

Etiology:

  • Autoimmune disease.
    • Antibodies against: desmoglein 1, desmoglein 3.

Microscopic

Features:[12]

  • Suprabasilar blistering.

DDx: Hailey-Hailey disease.

Pyogenic granuloma

  • AKA lobular capillary hemangioma.[13]

Plummer-Vinson syndrome

Triad:[14]

  • Iron-deficiency anemia.
  • Glossitis.
  • Esophageal dysphagia (usually related to webs).

Rhinoscleroma

Neoplasms

Odontogenic tumours and cysts

This is a rather large topic and dealt with in a separate article.

It includes:

Pharyngeal/nasopharyngeal specimens

  • Specimens may be challenging to interpret as there is normally an abundance of lymphoid cells.
  • Malignant tissue can look benign.[15]
  • May be difficult to differentiate from other malignancies.

Histology

  • Upper airway distant from areas with friction: respiratory type epithelium.

Work-up of negative H&E Bx differs by site:

Laryngeal neoplasms

These are dealt with in a separate article.

Human papillomavirus-associated head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

  • Abbreviated HPV-HNSCC.

Sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma

  • Abbreviated SNUC

General

  • Aggressive/poor prognosis.
    • In the past, survival was measured in months.[17]
    • With (aggressive) combined modality treatment, the overall five-year survival is approximately 75%.[18]

Microscopic

Features:[19]

  • Architecture: nested, trabecular or lobular.
  • Distinct cellular borders.
  • Small-to-moderate cytoplasm.
  • +/-Distinct nucleoli.
  • Tumour cell size variable (small to large).

Note:

  • Glandular and squamous differentiation are absent by definition.[20]

Images:

IHC

Features:[19]

  • Pankeratin +ve.
  • EMA +ve.
  • CK7 +ve.
  • CK5/6 -ve.

Others:

  • NSE +ve/-ve.
  • Chromogranin A -ve.
  • Synaptophysin -ve.
  • p63 +ve/-ve.[21]

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma

  • Abbreviated NPC.

Squamous lesions

  • Premalignant lesions
    • Mild dysplasia.
      • Low risk of progression to invasive lesions.
    • Moderate dysplasia.
    • Severe dysplasia/carcinoma in situ (CIS).
      • Histologically severe dysplasia and CIS cannot be differentiated reliably; ergo, there can be considered the same thing.
      • Severe dysplasia is not a necessary intermediate for cancer, i.e. invasive squamous cell carcinoma may be present with moderate dysplasia.
  • Invasive squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).
    • "Microinvasive" squamous cell carcinoma - term should be avoided as there is no concenus on what it means.
    • There are several subtypes of SCC.

Squamous dysplasia of the head and neck

Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck

Small cell anaplastic carcinoma

  • Rare.

DDx:

Granular cell tumour

General

  • May mimic (well-differentiated) squamous cell carcinoma - histopathologically.
  • Usually a benign tumour.

Microscopic

Features:

  • Large polygonal cells with abundant (eosinophilic) granular cytoplasm.

Image:

Olfactory neuroblastoma

See also: neuroblastoma.
  • AKA esthesioneuroblastoma.

General

Epidemiology:[23]

  • Prognosis: poor.
  • Wide age range with bimodal distribution - teens and 60s.
  • No sex predilection.

Clinical presentation:[23]

  • Nasal obstruction ~ 70%.
  • Epistaxis ~ 50%.
  • Anosmia.
  • Headache.

Gross

  • Arises from olfactory mucosa - upper nasal cavity.[24]

Microscopic

Features:[23]

DDx:

Images:

IHC

  • S100:
    • Sustentacular cells +ve.
    • Small round cells -ve.
  • Neuroendocrine markers +ve (CD56, synaptophysin).

Others:

  • CD45 -ve (r/o lymphoma).
  • AE1/AE3 usu. -ve (r/o carcinoma).
  • CAM5.2 usu. -ve -- up to 35% +ve.[24]

Craniopharyngioma

  • Cystic lesion +/- calcifications +/-squamous nests.
  • Related to Rathke cleft cyst.

Nasopharyngeal angiofibroma

See also: Angiofibroma.
  • AKA juvenile nasopharyngeal angiofibroma.

General

  • Classically adolescent males with recurrent nose bleeds.

Microscopic

Features:[26]

  • Fibroblastic cells with plump (near cuboidal) nuclei.
  • Fibrous stroma.
  • Abundant capillaries.

Images:

Nasal polyps

Overview

DDx (benign - multiple):[27]

Memory devices:

  • GAIT = Genetic, Allergic/idiopathic, Infectious, Tumours.
  • Allergic causes As - allergic, asthma, allergic granulomatous angiitis (Churg-Strauss syndrome), nonallergic rhinitis with eosinophilia.

Epidemiology

  • More commonly assoc. with nonallergic conditions.[27]

Treatment

  • Recurrent polyps: functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS).

Inflammatory polyps with neutrophils

General

  • Histologic findings are non-specific; DDx includes:[29]

Microscopic

Features:

  • Neutrophil predominant.
  • Edema.
  • +/-Mucus-impaction (dilated glands with mucus).
    • Suggestive of cystic fibrosis.[30]

Sign out

A. Nasal sinus tissue, right, excision:
- Inflamed edematous sinonasal mucosa with abundant neutrophils.
- Negative for malignancy.

B. Nasal sinus tissue, left, excision:
- Inflamed edematous sinonasal mucosa with abundant neutrophils and fragments of bone.
- Negative for malignancy.

Allergic nasal polyp

General

  • People with allergies.
    • Same type of polyps seen in those without allergies.[31]

Gross

  • Polypoid mass - several millimetres to centimetres in size.

Microscopic

Features:[32]

  • Normal respiratory epithelium.
  • Stroma with:
    • Edema.
    • Eosinophils.
    • +/-Other inflammatory cells (plasma cells, lymphocytes, neutrophils).

DDx:

Sign out

A. Nasal sinus tissue, right, excision:
- Inflamed edematous sinonasal mucosa with abundant eosinophils.
- Negative for malignancy.

B. Nasal sinus tissue, left, excision:
- Inflamed edematous sinonasal mucosa with abundant eosinophils and fragments of bone.
- Negative for malignancy.


A. NASAL SINUS TISSUE, RIGHT, EXCISION:
- INFLAMED EDEMATOUS SINONASAL MUCOSA WITH ABUNDANT EOSINOPHILS.
- NEGATIVE FOR MALIGNANCY.

B. NASAL SINUS TISSUE, LEFT, EXCISION:
- INFLAMED EDEMATOUS SINONASAL MUCOSA WITH ABUNDANT EOSINOPHILS AND FRAGMENTS OF BONE.
- NEGATIVE FOR MALIGNANCY.

Tonsillar lymphangiomatous polyp

Microscopic

Features:[33]

  • Polyp with lymph channels.

Schneiderian papilloma

  • AKA Schneiderian polyp.
  • AKA sinonasal papilloma.[34]

General

  • Lumpers vs. splitters debate about whether it is one entity or three.[35]

Subclassification:[35]

  • Inverted (Schneiderian) - most common ~60-65%.
  • Fungiform (Schneiderian) - less common ~30-35%.
  • Oncocytic (Schneiderian) - least common ~5%.

Inverted

Fungiform

  • AKA exophytic papilloma, AKA septal papilloma.[35]
  • Low risk of malignant transformation.

Oncocytic

  • AKA cylindrical cell papilloma.[37]
  • Lateral nasal wall.[35]

Microscopic

Inverted Schneiderian papilloma

Features:[35]

  • Well-demarcated epithelial islands in the stroma.
  • Squamous +/-surface keratinization or respiratory type epithelium (with cilia).
  • +/-Neutrophils.
  • +/-Goblet cells.

Notes:

  • May mimic invasive SCC.

Images:

Fungiform Schneiderian papilloma

Features:

  • Exophytic growth pattern - key feature.

Oncocytic Schneiderian papilloma

Features:

  • Oncocytes - key feature.
  • Exophytic or endophytic growth pattern.

See also

References

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External links