title: Oral squamous cell carcinoma: the impact of stage-dependent therapy regimes on postoperative disease recurrence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate disease recurrence among patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and positive lymph node lesions receiving different therapy for different stages of the disease.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred sixty-one patients with biopsy-proven pN1 and pN2+ carcinomas were reviewed retrospectively. We investigated postoperative disease recurrence when using surgery alone (SA), adjuvant radiotherapy (RT), or adjuvant radiochemotherapy (RCT) and compared our results with the 2012 German guidelines.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the study population, 60 (37%) experienced postoperative disease recurrence, 38% with SA, 42% with adjuvant RT, and 39% with adjuvant RCT (P = .420). In the case of pN1, the recurrence rate was 14% with SA, 32% with RT, and 33% with RCT (P = .156); and in pN2+, 60%, 49%, and 29%, respectively (P = .012).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Surgery plus adjuvant therapy has benefits with respect to postoperative disease recurrence in pN2+ OSCC. In pN1, surgery alone might be as effective as adjuvant RT or RCT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital "Klinikum rechts der Isar", München, Germany. Electronic address: Tobi.unterhuber@t-online.de.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Unterhuber
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, University Hospital "Klinikum rechts der Isar", München, Germany.
authors.forename: Marcia Nona
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Duma
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital "Klinikum rechts der Isar", München, Germany.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rau
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital "Klinikum rechts der Isar", München, Germany.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nieberler
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital "Klinikum rechts der Isar", München, Germany.
authors.forename: Klaus-Dietrich
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Wolff
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University Hospital "Klinikum rechts der Isar", München, Germany.
authors.forename: Marco Rainer
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Kesting
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012189:Retrospective Studies