Five-year survival rate of patients with maxillary malignant neoplasms is low, the prognostic factors of these neoplasms were unclear. This study was to investigate prognostic factors of maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms.Records of 151 inpatients with malignant neoplasms of maxillary sinus initially treated at Cancer Center of Sun Yat-sen University from Sep. 1983 to Mar. 1999 were reviewed. Of 151 cases, 72 were squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), 44 were adenocarcinoma, 16 were sarcoma, and 19 were other histological types; according to 1997 UICC classification, 7 were stage II, 55 were stage III, and 89 were stage IV; 66 patients received combined therapy of surgery and radiotherapy, 14 received surgery alone, 25 received radiotherapy alone, 39 received other treatments, and 7 gave up treatment. All patients were followed up for more than 5 years. Influences of clinicopathologic factors on prognosis of patients with maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms were analyzed by Kaplan-Meier method, and Cox regression model with SPSS10.0 software.Five-year overall survival rate of patients of 40 years old was 33.3%(P=0.030); that of patients with SCC was 30.2%, of patients with adenocarcinoma was 57.5%, of patients with sarcoma was 24.3%, of patients with tumor of other histological types was 50.7% (P=0.011); that of patients with tumor of stage II, III, and IV were 85.7%, 45.8%, and 32.7%, respectively (P=0.029); that of patients with cervical metastases was 14.4%, of patients without cervical metastases was 44.1% (P=0.005); that of patients with distant metastases was 14.3%, of patients without distant metastases was 41.1% (P=0.011); that of patients without treatment was 14.3%, of patients treated with surgery alone was 42.9%, of patients treated with radiotherapy alone was 32.3%, of patients treated with combined therapy of surgery and radiotherapy was 50.8%, of patients treated with other treatments was 29.1% (P=0.004). Univariate survival analysis showed that the above 6 factors were prognostic factors of patients with maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms. Multivariate analysis showed that combination of surgery and radiotherapy (P=0.004, OR1), SCC (P=0.016, OR >1), and sarcoma (P=0.003, OR >1) were independent prognostic factors of patients with maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms.For maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms, patients with SCC or sarcoma had poorer survival than patients with adenocarcinoma or other histological types of tumor; patients with sarcoma had poorer survival than patients with SCC. The higher the patient's clinical stage was, the worse his prognosis was. Combination of surgery and radiotherapy may be the best treatment for patients with maxillary sinus malignant neoplasms.