title: Midline cancer of the floor of the mouth: role of suprahyoid dissection.
abstract: Of 37 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the floor of the mouth seen during a 5-year period, 28 were treated primarily by surgery. Ten of the 28 patients presented with midline cancers measuring between 1.0 and 3 cm (T1 and T2). Three of these patients had local excision only. Metastases to the submandibular lymph nodes later occurred in 1 of these 3 patients. The remaining 7 patients with midline lesions had wide excision of the tumour, marginal resection of the mandible and bilateral suprahyoid node dissection. Of these 7 patients 4 remained free of disease for periods ranging between 2 and 5 years. Two of these had lymph node metastases. These results suggest that en bloc excision of relatively small midline cancers (i.e. not exceeding 2 cm (T1) in largest diameter) with bilateral suprahoid node dissection gives effective control of these lesions.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006928:Hyoid Bone; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008722:Methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D009060:Mouth Floor; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D013363:Submandibular Gland