The role of modified neck dissection in the treatment of cutaneous melanoma of the head and neck.

One hundred eighty-one patients were treated with a modified neck dissection for suspected or proved metastatic melanoma during a ten-year period. The overall failure rate in the neck was 16%. Eighty-three percent of the patients with neck recurrence died of disseminated disease. A modified neck dissection that preserves important functional and cosmetic structures but does not compromise cancer control seemed to be appropriate treatment for actual or suspected melanoma metastatic to cervical nodes.