Summary

Distinguishing new primary lung tumours from lung metastasis in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a challenging clinical problem. Histological examination is not always able to distinguish between these scenarios as SCC is common in both sites. Here the authors present a case of metachronous cancers of the head and neck and lung in which human papilloma virus testing was proposed as a mechanism to distinguish primary from metastatic carcinoma.