Radiation-induced Sarcoma of the jaw

Radiation-induced sarcoma of the head and neck region is a long-term risk of radiation therapy, although radiation-induced sarcoma of the jaw is uncommon. This report describes 3 patients with radiation-induced sarcoma in the jaw (2 in the mandible and 1 in the maxilla). All the tumours developed within the field of previous radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, the total dose of radiation for the 3 patients in this report ranged from 70 Gy to 75 Gy, and the average latency period was 9.3 years. Two patients underwent mandibular and maxillary resection, and died of lung metastasis and local tumour recurrence 16 months and 13 months, respectively, after the treatment; the other patient refused any further treatment and died 3 months later.