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The efficacy of comprehensive neck dissection with or without postoperative radiotherapy in nodal metastases of squamous cell carcinoma of the upper respiratory and digestive tracts
Author(s) -
Leemans Charles R.,
Tiwari Rammohan,
Nauta Jos J. P.,
Snow Gordon B.,
Van Der Waal Isaac,
Karim A. B. M. F.
Publication year - 1990
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 - 10.1288/00005537-199011000-00012
Subject(s) - medicine , radiation therapy , neck dissection , basal cell , incidence (geometry) , surgery , dissection (medical) , radiology , carcinoma , optics , physics
Neck recurrence‐free curves corrected for local recurrence were compared for 494 patients who underwent 565 comprehensive neck dissections. In 42 dissections, no radi‐cality could be obtained. Of the 523 histologically radical dissections, examination revealed tumor in 352 cases. Patients in whom three or more positive nodes or extranodal spread in one or more nodes were found received postoperative radiotherapy. In the histologically NO group, the incidence of neck recurrence after 5 years was 3%; in the N+ group as a whole, it was 10%. Analysis of the influence of extranodal spread and the number of positive nodes showed that the group with one or two positive nodes without extranodal spread (that did not receive postoperative radiotherapy) did not statistically differ from the other groups. This suggests that the results of the group with one or two positive nodes without extranodal spread can be improved by postoperative radiotherapy.