Postoperative radiotherapy for primary early oral tongue cancer with pathologic N1 neck.
BACKGROUND
The benefit of postoperative radiotherapy (PORT) for early squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue (SCCOT) with pathologic N1 disease remains unclear.


METHODS
The medical records of all patients with pathologic T1-2/N0-1 SCCOT who underwent wide excision of the primary tumor and neck dissection between 1980 and 2002 were reviewed.


RESULTS
There were 59 patients analyzed, including 28 patients with and 31 patients without PORT. The 5-year disease-free survival rates were 81.2% and 53% for the patients with and without PORT, respectively (p = .03). The overall 5-year survival rates were 77% and 70.5% for the patients with and without PORT, respectively (p = .36). Multivariate analyses showed that PORT had the only protective effect (p = .01) and extracapsular spread (ECS) was the only significantly adverse factor for locoregional recurrence (p = .03).


CONCLUSIONS
Approximately one-third of the patients who received only surgery had locoregional recurrence. PORT significantly improved the disease-free survival.
Chen
Tseng-Cheng
TC
Department of Otolaryngology, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
Wang
Chi-Te
CT
Ko
Jenq-Yuh
JY
Lou
Pei-Jen
PJ
Yang
Tsung-Lin
TL
Ting
Lai-Lei
LL
Wang
Chun-Wei
CW
Hu
Ya-Ling
YL
Wang
Cheng-Ping
CP
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery*; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D037981:Neck Dissection; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery*