The influence of extent of neck treatment upon control of cervical lymphadenopathy in cancers of the oral tongue.

This is a retrospective analysis of the management of the neck in 84 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the oral tongue treated with curative intent between 1968 and 1985. Patients with a clinically negative neck were treated to the neck only if the patient was thought to have a reasonable probability of occult neck metastases. This policy resulted in a 3-year adjusted neck control rate for N0 patients treated with limited (no, bilateral-partial, or ipsilateral) neck therapy of 38% compared with 95% for patients treated with bilateral, whole neck irradiation (p less than .001). None of the relapses in the patients with limited irradiation were in the treatment portal. Attempted salvage with a neck dissection resulted in cure in only 30%. The 3-year adjusted neck control rate for the N1 and N2 patients treated with total neck irradiation and surgery was 75% and 63%, respectively. The location of recurrence in these patients was in the field of irradiation, but contralateral to the side of the neck dissection.