Rare involvement of submandibular gland by oral squamous cell carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
The true involvement of the submandibular gland in primary oral cancer seems quite uncommon.


METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the pathologic records of 342 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma who underwent wide excision of primary oral cancer and simultaneous neck dissection from January 2000 to December 2003.


RESULTS
Of the 383 submandibular glands, only 7 (1.8%) exhibited tumor involvement. Of them, 5 glands were involved by direct extension from the primary tumor. One gland showed local invasion from an adjacent involved lymph node in level I and 1 was from intraglandular lymph node metastasis. All of these 6 tumors with submandibular gland involvement were T4 disease (p = .0003) and the neck nodal status on each was more than N2b (p < .0001).


CONCLUSIONS
The patients with early-stage oral squamous cell carcinoma with preoperative N0 neck may be candidates for preservation of the submandibular gland.
Department of Otolaryngology, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
Tseng-Cheng
TC
Chen
Wu-Chia
WC
Lo
Jenq-Yuh
JY
Ko
Pei-Jen
PJ
Lou
Tsung-Lin
TL
Yang
Cheng-Ping
CP
Wang
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013363:Submandibular Gland / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult