{"doi":"10.1002/lary.70060","title":"Branchial Cleft Cyst Carcinoma Remains Grossly Over Diagnosed: A Large Database Analysis","abstract":"INTRODUCTION: Branchial cleft cyst carcinomas (BCCC) are rare lateral neck malignancies thought to originate from branchial cleft remnants. Diagnosing primary BCCC should be approached with skepticism; cystic nodal metastasis must be excluded. Due to its rarity, we performed a comprehensive database study to better characterize the ongoing diagnosis of BCCC. METHODS: Single-arm retrospective cohort study using the TriNetX Research database. Patients ≥ 18 years of age with a diagnosis of BCCC identified by ICD-10 C10.4 between 2008 and 2018 were included, allowing for up to 5 years of follow-up. Demographics, past medical history, oncologic history, diagnostic rate, treatment pathways, and 5-year outcomes including diagnosis with primary HNC and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were analyzed within TriNetX. RESULTS: In 10 years, 1070 patients diagnosed with BCCC were included. The mean age was 59.6 ± 9.7; the majority were male (n = 810, 75.6%) and white (n = 765, 71.4%). Incidence of BCCC increased from 2008 to 2015 and subsequently dropped precipitously. Almost all patients, 94.4% (n = 1011), had prior or subsequent diagnosis of another HNC within 5 years. Five-year survival probability for BCCC was 56.0%. CONCLUSIONS: We describe the largest cohort of BCCC patients to date. Most patients were diagnosed with another HNC within 5 years, suggesting a likely misdiagnosis of BCCC. A poor 5-year survival rate may be secondary to a delay in appropriate treatment following an erroneous diagnosis, underscoring the need to approach a diagnosis of BCCC with caution. We consider the use of the BCCC code to be detrimental and recommend its discontinuation.","journal":"The Laryngoscope","year":2025,"id":573078,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.8458,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":733619,"name":"Neerav Goyal","orcid":"0000-0001-7783-1097","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":718370,"name":"David Goldenberg","orcid":"0000-0002-2822-4116","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1376848,"name":"Andrew Meci","orcid":"0000-0001-9863-5810","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":23,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:57:32.445190Z","pmid":"40843973","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}