A Clinicopathological Study of Olfactory Neuroblastoma

Background: Olfactory neuroblastoma, also known as Esthesioneuroblastoma, is a malignant neoplasm of neuroectodermal origin. In view of its rarity, a clinicopathological study of esthesioneuroblastoma is presented. Aim: Study Olfactory neuroblastoma cases diagnosed in the past ten years in patients attending Otorhinolaryngology outpatient. Patients and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted at Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore from 2009-18. Patients who attended Otorhinolaryngology outpatient and proven histopathologically to have Olfactory neuroblastoma are included in the study with the exclusion criteria being metastasis of Neuroblastoma to Head and Neck. It is a timebound study and cases during the study period fulfilling the inclusion criteria are included. Results: A total of six cases are taken up for the study. These include one female and five male patients. Epistaxis was the most common presenting complaint. All the patients had nasal mass and local spread was seen most commonly to paranasal sinuses, orbit and anterior cranial fossa. Level two lymph nodes were most commonly involved. Overall they were staged as Kadish C in three, A in two and D in one. Treatments included surgical resection and radiation therapy. Two patients presented with recurrence during follow-up out of which one was local and another nodal recurrence. Conclusion: Although rare, any patient in the sixth decade presenting with epistaxis must be evaluated for Olfactory neuroblastoma. Better results are obtained with the combined modality of treatment. Also, the patients must be followedup for an extended period for the timely detection of recurrences.