Surgical treatment of early oral carcinoma-results of a prospective controlled multicenter study.
OBJECTIVE
To assess whether early stage (pT1-2,pN0-1) oral cavity carcinoma is adequately treated by radical surgical resection alone.


METHODS
Prospective multicenter study. Of 105 patients with cT1-2 cN0-1 oral carcinoma treated in conformity with the study design, 12 had to be excluded because of tumor-positive margins or pN stage > N1. The remaining 93 patients were monitored for at least 2 years.


RESULTS
Seventeen patients had local or regional recurrence develop. In 12 of the 17 patients locoregional control was achieved by second treatment. Overall, the 4-year disease-specific survival probability was 94%. Patients treated initially without selective neck dissection had significantly higher recurrence rates than those with neck dissection, although the survival probability was not adversely affected.


CONCLUSIONS
Early (pT1-2, pN0-1) squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity is adequately treated by surgery alone, provided the resection margins are tumor free. On the basis of the presented data, we would also advocate routine selective neck dissection.
Wolfensberger
M
M
Head and Neck Cancer Center, University Hospital of Basle, CH-4031 Basel, Switzerland. mwolfensberger@uhbs.ch
Zbaeren
P
P
Dulguerov
P
P
Müller
W
W
Arnoux
A
A
Schmid
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery*; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life; D016019:Survival Analysis