Squamous cell carcinoma of the oropharynx: why we fail.

The squamous cancers of the oropharynx in 384 patients were staged according to a T and N system. Three hundred seventy-one of them were treated for cure at a time when modern surgical and radiotherapeutic technics were available. The patient records were analyzed in regard to five year survival, factors influencing treatment failure, and the effect of new primary cancers. Failure to eradicate the cancer at the primary site remains the largest reason for the patients' demise, but as aggressive local and regional treatment becomes more successful, greater numbers of patients survive only to become victims of distant metastases and second primary cancers.