A study of occult metastases in patients with Squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck in N0 neck

Abstract

More than 90% of head and neck malignancies are squamous cell carcinoma. HNSCCs are highly prone to involvement of the cervical nodes. So, in most cases, elective cervical dissection is performed in the same first step of treatment in addition to treatment of the initial site.Thus, It is a major factor in the decision-making process for the treatment of patients and neck surgery. In this study, the extent of occult neck metastasis in SCCs of different parts of the head and neck, Its association with tumor stages and cervical recurrence one year after surgery has been investigated. Material & methods. In this study, 95 patients with HNSCC with stage N0 neck who underwent elective ND were pathologically examined and the rate of occult metastasis in the extracted cervical lymph nodes was calculated. CT scans were performed for cervical recurrence. Then, the two groups with hidden cervical metastasis in pathology, PN +, were compared with the PN-group. Also, the relationship between PN + and cervical recurrence and tumor Tstage was compared using SPSS 23.0 software. Results. According to the results of a study of 95 patients with HNSCC, 36% of patients were PN + and 64% PN-. Statistically significant relationship was found between the presence of micro-metastasis in cervical lymph nodes with regional recurrence at least one year after surgery in all patients specially patients with oral SCC.