Premium
Soft Tissue Metastases in Head and Neck Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Author(s) -
Mooney Craig P.,
Gao Kan,
Clark Jonathan R.,
Gupta Ruta,
Shan Kerwin,
Palme Carsten E.,
Ebrahimi Ardalan,
Ch'ng Sydney,
Low TsuHui Hubert
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the laryngoscope
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.181
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1531-4995
pISSN - 0023-852X
DOI - 10.1002/lary.29064
Subject(s) - medicine , retrospective cohort study , proportional hazards model , radiation therapy , soft tissue , cohort , oncology , head and neck cancer , survival analysis , lymph node , cervical lymph nodes , parotid gland , metastasis , cancer , radiology , pathology
Objective Soft tissue metastases (STM) in head and neck cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (HNcSCC) are non‐nodal based metastases to the parotid and cervical soft tissues of the head and neck. This is a unique subgroup of regional metastases amongst patients with cSCC and have been shown to be associated with poor prognosis. Detailed studies of this subgroup are lacking in the literature. A retrospective cohort analysis was performed to characterize the prognostic significance of STM in HNcSCC based on individual clinicopathological features. Methods Patients with HNcSCC with STM were identified from the Sydney Head and Neck Cancer Institute database. Clinicopathological characteristics were extracted from the histopathological reports. Recurrence and follow‐up data were analyzed to determine disease‐free and overall survival using the Kaplan–Meier method and Cox proportional hazards models. Results After excluding all patients with lymph node metastasis with no STM, there were 200 patients identified (161 parotid, 32 cervical, and seven with concurrent parotid and cervical STM) with a 5‐year overall survival of 36%. In univariable analysis, age of patients, size of the deposits, location of the deposits, and patients that were not offered adjuvant radiotherapy have worse overall survival. However, on multivariable analysis, age and the number of STM deposits were independent factors that predict for worse survival. Conclusion The presence of STM in patients with HNcSCC is associated with poor prognosis. Increasing number of STM deposits, as well as involved margin of the regional excision, negatively impacted on the overall prognosis. Level of Evidence Level III – retrospective cohort study. Laryngoscope , 131:E1209–E1213, 2021