title: Salvage surgery as the primary treatment for recurrent oral squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: The choice of salvage modalities of recurrent squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oral cavity remains controversial. We investigated the feasibility of the surgical salvage treatment as a primary option. From 1989 to 1999, curative intended surgery was performed on 191 patients with SCC of the oral cavity at National Cheng Kung University Hospital in Taiwan. These patients were divided into fresh group and salvage group. Survival and complication rates were analyzed for both groups. Patients with early and late recurrent stage had 60 and 38% 5-year absolute survival after salvage surgery. The overall complication rate was higher in the salvage group (60.7 vs 30.4%, P<0.0001), but the major complication rate was not significantly different between these groups (P=0.121). Surgery achieves an acceptable survival in recurrent oral SCC without increasing the major complication rate. Thus surgery is concluded to be a reliable and feasible treatment of choice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, 138 Sheng Li Rd., Tainan 704, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yen-Chun
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Jenn-Ren
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hsiao
authors.forename: Sen-Tien
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Tsai
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000601:surgery*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000601:surgery*; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D016879:Salvage Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome