Is elective neck dissection necessary for the surgical management of T2N0 glottic carcinoma?

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of neck metastasis incidence in surgically treated T2N0M0 glottic carcinoma patients and discussion the necessity of elective neck dissection in this subset of larynx carcinomas.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The patients who were staged clinically and radiologically as T2N0M0 glottic carcinoma having surgical intervention for their primary tumor and elective neck dissection between March 1996 and July 2009 with at least 2 years of follow up were included in the study. The recordings of patients were evaluated retrospectively for primary tumor location, vocal cord mobility, type of laryngectomy and neck dissection, results of histopathological examination, number of dissected lymph nodes for each specimen and for local and regional failure during the follow up.
RESULTS: In the 13-year study period, 24 consecutive patients with a mean age of 56.4 were treated surgically with 20 frontolateral, three vertical laryngectomies and one cricohyoido-epiglottopexy; 19 lateral and 5 functional neck dissections were performed for the necks. Histopathological examinations of the neck dissection specimens revealed an average of 32 lymph nodes (8-65) and there was no metastasis in any of these specimens. After an average 58 months of follow-up, only one patient had local failure and no patients had regional failure.
CONCLUSION: As occult metastasis was not detected in any of the neck dissection specimens in cT2N0M0 patients and no regional failure was experienced during the follow-up period, it was concluded that the neck could be followed up without performing elective neck dissection in the surgical management of cT2N0M0 glottic carcinoma patients.