Pattern and Significance of Cervical Metastatic Disease in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Objective: This study describes the patterns of the cervical metastatic lymph nodes of patients with oral carcinoma who received unilateral neck dissection and their correlation with the clinical course. Patients and Methods: Clinical examination of 72 patients with tongue, floor of the mouth, and mandibular gingival squamous cell carcinoma who had received unilateral neck dissection during an 11-year period between 1987 and 1997 was performed. Results: The survival rates of patients with 3 or more metastatic lymph nodes, and/or extracapsular nodes, and/or a metastatic level of III or IV were all lower than for patients with less than 3 metastatic lymph nodes (p = 0.002) and/or intracapsular nodes (p = 0.0118), and/or metastasis of level I or II (p = 0.0067). Multivariate analysis revealed that the number of metastatic lymph nodes was the factor of greatest influence in terms of prognosis. Conclusion: The prognosis for patients with 3 or more metastatic lymph nodes and/or extracapsular nodes are poor, so postoperative therapy such as radiotherapy should be considered for these patients.