title: [Head and neck cancers--significance of salvage operation].
abstract: The crude and determinate 5 year survivals out of 264 cases were 28.4% and 34.6% respectively. There were 136 cases in which the recurrence located at the primary site only. Whereas surgery performed on 81 cases resulted in the determinal survival rate of 58.0%, radiation therapy for 42 cases could attained only 19.5% survival. Cryotherapy were performed on 4 localized recurrent lesions and all but one which died of other cause are living well for more than 5 years. In 58 cases, the recurrence appeared only in neck nodes. Determinate 5 year survival rate of 64.7% could be obtained out of 40 cases treated by radical neck dissection. Only 7.1% of cases treated otherwise survived more than 5 years. Results of treatment were poor in the 39 cases in which both the primary and neck nodes were involved by recurrences. Only one case survived more than 5 years which had undergone composite operation. Introduction of composite operation simultaneously combined with reconstruction extended the indication of radical therapy. Seventy-eight cases which would have been the candidate for palliative treatment underwent this type of surgery, and 41.0% of them survived more than 5 years. It is noteworthy that radical treatment is still reserved for many recurrent cases of head and neck carcinoma. And salvage operation, if indicated, promises the best results among various methods of treatment.
mesh_terms: D001918:Brachytherapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003452:Cryosurgery; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D011379:Prognosis