Squamous cell carcinoma of the hypopharynx in a young woman with Fanconi's anemia.

Fanconi's anemia is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by congenital malformation, bone marrow failure and genomic instability, with a predisposition to develop malignancies, especially the leukemias and upper aerodigestive tract tumors. Due to inherent characteristics to this syndrome, the treatment of such neoplasms is particularly difficult. In this paper we report the case of a 24-year-old woman with Fanconi's anemia who developed a squamous cell carcinoma of the hypopharynx; she had none of the traditional risk factors, such as smoking and alcohol abuse. We also briefly review the literature about this topic.