Outcome of treatment of 160 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the neck staged N3a.

One hundred sixty patients with N3a neck disease were studied to evaluate the overall treatment outcome. Of these, 54 received palliative radiotherapy and 106 patients were treated with treated with curative intent. Twenty patients (19%) died of intercurrent disease (13 at less than 2 years), and 13 of 93 patients followed for 2 or more years are alive with no evidence of disease. Thus, 73 patients died directly from cancer, with metastatic disease being the leading cause of death. Almost one third of the patients failed to complete treatment.