Computed tomography evaluation of head and neck cancers at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital

Aim: To evaluate the pattern of head and neck tumours on computed tomography, defining its characteristics and the extent of spread. Introduction: Head and neck cancers (HNC) are not uncommon in Nigeria. Head and neck cancers constitute 5-50% of all cancers globally and 5-8% of total body cancers in Europe and America. In Nigeria head and neck cancer constitutes 6.2% of all cancers in the southern part of the Country. Most patients presented late for diagnosis and treatment and consequently the prognosis in our environment is poor. Computed Tomography and MRI are revolutionary tools for radiologic diagnosis and determination of the extent of treatment and the progress of the disease. Materials and Methods: This is a hospital based retrospective study which comprised all the histologically confirmed cases of malignant head and neck tumours seen at the computed tomography suite in radiology department of University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) over a 6 year period (2008-2014). All the patients were examined by the Ear Nose and Throat surgeon and occasionally by a Dentist. The age, sex, clinical presentation, location and extent of lesion involvement with contiguous structures were analysed statistically using SPSS 14.0 window evaluation version. Results: 27 cases of histologically confirmed malignant tumours of the head and neck region were included in the study. Of the 27 malignant cases, there were 15 males and 12 females giving male/female ratio of 1.3:1. The age range was 3 years to 76 years. Mean age was 43 years and the mode was 35 years. The most frequent site of lesion is the nasopharynx which constituted 37% of all the cases; and the commonest presentation was epistaxis. Conclusion: Majority of the patients presented late for diagnosis and treatment as they all had marked spread of the malignancy into the surrounding tissue. Computed tomography enables pre-treatment assessment and staging of the tumour, as it is invaluable in defining the extent of the tumour and contiguous organ involvement.