Background: Chondrosarcomas are rare tumors of the head and neck. Nevertheless, they display the most common non-epithelial malignancy of the larynx.
Materials and methods: Between 1999 and February 2010 we treated six patients with laryngeal chondrosarcoma. The group included two female and four male patients ranging in age from 54 to 82 years.
Results: An 82-year-old female patient died 3 months after diagnosis and tracheostomy due to other underlying diseases. An 82-year-old male patient underwent primary radiation therapy. In the other patients, we performed a modified hemilaryngektomy in three cases and a laryngectomy in one. In those four cases, there were no signs of recurrent disease 50, 85, 87 and 95 months after surgery, respectively. There were no local or distant metastases.
Conclusions: Chondrosarcomas of the larynx are slow growing neoplasms. Metastases occur in less than 3% of cases. Complete resection is the therapy of choice. Function-preserving surgical approaches should be favoured.