Rare axillary metastasis from squamous cell carcinoma of the tonsil.

Tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is rarely involved in axillary lymph nodes. We describe herein a rare case of tonsillar SCC involved in axillary lymph nodes. A 55-year-old man with a history of a wide excision of the left tonsil and concurrent chemoradiotherpy for the tonsillar SCC 1 year ago was presented to us with dysphagia. Except for the confirmed tumor over the retropharyngeal space, whole-body FDG PET/CT demonstrated a hypermetabolic lesion about 1 cm in size in the right axilla. Histopathology proved as a metastatic tonsillar SCC. The cancer staging and therapeutic regimens were thus altered.