A Comparative Study on Clinico-radiological Differentiation of Sino-nasal Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC) and Sino-nasal Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL)

(1) To compare clinical presentations between sinonasal non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL) and sino-nasal Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). (2) To compare computed tomographic (CT) scan findings between sino-nasal NHL and sino-nasal SCC. (1) Design: Retrospective Comparative study. (2) Setting: tertiary care hospital. (3) Subjects: patients with histologically proven primary maxillary tumors (NHL and SCC). (4) Method: (a) Patients: medical records between March 2013 to March 2018 were examined and patients with histologically proven primary maxillary tumors (NHL and SCC) were included in the study. (b) CT imaging: unenhanced and contrast enhanced images were obtained for all patients. Unenhanced CT images were reconstructed using bone and soft tissue algorithm. (c) Image Assessment: Predominant growth patterns of the tumors were noted from the CT images. Sino-nasal NHL: 8 men and 3 women; Sino-nasal SCC: 19 men and 5 women. Mean age of the NHL and SCC patients were 66.18 y and 64.88 y respectively. Nasal obstruction, diplopia/blurred vision, nasal/cheek pain and cranial nerve palsies were significantly more common presentation among sino-nasal NHL patients (p values of 0.0053, 0.0014, 0.0089 and 0.0089 respectively). Permeative growth pattern was significantly higher among NHL patients (54.54%) (p value = 0.026) whereas SCCs showed significant destructive growth pattern (83.33%) (p value = 0.0009). Intra-tumoral necrosis was significantly higher in SCC patients (87.5%) (p value = < 0.0001). Nasal obstruction, diplopia/blurred vision, nasal/cheek pain and cranial nerve palsies were the predominant presenting features in sino-nasal NHL patients. In CT imaging, Sino-nasal SCCs showed predominantly destructive growth pattern and intra-tumoral necrosis whereas permeative growth was predominant feature of sino-nasal NHL.