ABSTRACT
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is endemic in China, Hong Kong, and the Philippines. However, this disease is rare in North America and the Caribbean. This paper discusses the clinical features, prognosis, treatment outcomes, and survival rates of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Jamaica. The incidence in Jamaica is 1.4 per 100,000. The National Cancer Registry in Jamaica keeps a record of all cancers. A retrospective cohort study of patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma between 1988-2000 was reviewed. The presenting features, staging, histological diagnosis, treatment, and patient outcome were assessed. All patients received radiation therapy, and 89% of the patients completed the course of therapy. Seventeen percent received chemotherapy, consisting of cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil. Surgery played a minor role in the definitive management of nasopharyngeal carcinoma in this study. Three-year survival rates were 21%. The study demonstrates findings unique to the Caribbean nation of Jamaica. There is a bimodal pattern to the age distribution typical in non-endemic areas, such as shown in this study. Nasopharyngeal carcinoma evades early diagnosis because of its anatomic location and varied symptomatology. Prognostic indicators include intracranial extension, cervical node, and distant metastasis.
Subject(s)
Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/epidemiology , Adolescent , Adult , Age Distribution , Aged , Child , Cohort Studies , Female , Humans , Incidence , Jamaica/epidemiology , Male , Middle Aged , Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/diagnosis , Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms/therapy , Retrospective Studies , Survival RateABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To analyse all the cases of ameloblastoma seen in two major public hospitals in Jamaica, over a 15-year period, and to compare our results with what has been previously documented. No such analysis has been carried out in Jamaica or elsewhere in the English-speaking Caribbean. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The case files of patients histologically diagnosed to have ameloblastoma at both the Kingston Regional Hospital and Cornwall Regional Hospital in Jamaica from 1980 to 1995 were retrieved and information about this odontogenic tumour was documented. RESULTS: A total of 47 new cases of ameloblastoma were recorded between 1980 and 1995. This number accounted for 16.03 percent of all jaw bone tumours in Jamaica, and 38.2 percent of jaw bone lesions of odontogenic origin. These cases of ameloblastoma accounted for 67 percent of odontogenic tumours with the exception of odontomas. The mean age was 29.1 years with a range of 13-67 years. The male-female ratio was 1:1.14 (an almost equal sex ratio). Only 3 cases presented in maxilla. CONCLUSION: The clinicopathological presentation of ameloblastoma in Jamaica is similar to what has been documented by other authors throughout the world. (AU)
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Aged , Adult , Middle Aged , Humans , Male , Female , Ameloblastoma/epidemiology , Jamaica/epidemiology , Cross-Sectional StudiesABSTRACT
One per cent of all brain tumours and twenty per cent of meningiomas eventually develop an extracranial extension. The least common site is the neck. We report a case of malignant meningioma with extension into the neck of a 39-year-old male.(Au)
Subject(s)
Adult , Case Reports , Humans , Male , Meningioma/drug therapy , Head and Neck Neoplasms/drug therapy , Meningeal Neoplasms/drug therapy , Jamaica , Cerebrum/pathology , Head and Neck Neoplasms/therapy , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Meningioma/therapy , Prognosis , Tomography, X-Ray ComputedABSTRACT
One per cent of all brain tumours and twenty per cent of meningiomas eventually develop an extracranial extension. The least common site is the neck. We report a case of malignant meningioma with extension into the neck of a 39-year-old male.
Subject(s)
Adult , Humans , Male , Head and Neck Neoplasms/drug therapy , Meningeal Neoplasms/drug therapy , Meningioma/drug therapy , Prognosis , Brain/pathology , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Tomography, X-Ray Computed , Head and Neck Neoplasms/therapy , Jamaica , Meningioma/therapyABSTRACT
A review of the incidence of penetrating injuries to the head and neck in Jamaica reveals an increase of almost 100 percent from 1974 to 1987 from a average of 57 cases per year in 1974 to 135 cases per year in 1997. In the USA from 1967 to 1983 (16 years) the increase was 48 percent with a projected 2 percent annual increase for industrialised cities: for example: 1. In 1975 there were 112 stab wounds and 98 gun shot wounds to the head and neck. 2. In 1976 there were 118 stab wounds and 121 gun shot wounds to the head and and neck. Penetrating injuries from firearms have risen steadily in Jamaica to equal those from stab wounds and this due to increase in the use of illegal weapons; for example: 1. In 1974 there were 17 stab wounds and 6 gun shot wounds to the head and neck. 2. In 1997 there were 27 stab wounds and 24 gun shot wounds to the head and neck. The typical victim of this injury is a male in his late teens to twenties and the left side of his head and neck is the most common site of injury. The type of object or weapon which inflicts the injury also affects the severity of the injury. Stab wounds cause fewer severe injuries than a machete chop, but with the introduction of firearms with muzzle velocities in the region of 760 metres per second, injury to both sides of the head and neck is possible with one missile. Management in Jamaica is based on selective exploration of these injuries. Our mortality rate of patients who reach the operating table alive does not exceed 1 percent.(AU)
Subject(s)
Humans , Craniocerebral Trauma , Neck Injuries , Wounds, Penetrating , Wounds, Stab , Jamaica , Wounds, GunshotABSTRACT
We describe the clinico-pathological features and discuss the possible pathogenetic mechanism of thyroid papillary carcinoma arising in a branchial cleft cyst. This has been described only once previously in the literature. (AU)
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Adult , Case Reports , Branchioma/pathology , Carcinoma, Papillary/pathology , Head and Neck Neoplasms/pathology , Thyroid Gland/pathology , JamaicaABSTRACT
We describe the clinico-pathological features and discuss the possible pathogenetic mechanism of thyroid papillary carcinoma arising in a branchial cleft cyst. This has been described only once previously in the literature.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Adult , Thyroid Gland/pathology , Branchioma/pathology , Carcinoma, Papillary/pathology , Head and Neck Neoplasms/pathology , JamaicaABSTRACT
A case of cervical thymic cyst in a 16-year old male is described. The lesion is quite rare and was seen for the first time at the University Hospital of the West Indies. The literature has been reviewed and the embryology and pathogtenesis of the condition have been discussed. A pre-operative diagnosis of thymic cyst in the neck is difficult and should be included in the differential diagnosis of swellings in the neck (AU)
Subject(s)
Adolescent , Humans , Male , Cysts/pathology , Neck , Thymus Gland , Cysts/etiology , Lymphatic Diseases/pathologyABSTRACT
Thirteen cases of severe coagulation disorders occuring during the past 5 years and investigated at the Government Pathological Laboratory, Jamaica are discussed. Nine of these were hemophilias, one had Christmas disease and three further cases which presented complicated aberrations are discussed in detail. Of this latter group one had multiple congenital deficiency of prothrombin complex (i.e. prothrombin factor VII and factor X) and the other two, who were siblings, had multiple anomalies (anti-hemophilic globulin deficiency, a circulating anti-coagulant acting as a thrombo-plastin inhibitor as well as a plasma thromboplastin antecedent deficiency) (AU)