title: The Effect of Radiotherapy on Ultrasound-Guided Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy and the Ultrasound Characteristics of Neck Lymph Nodes in Oral Cancer Patients after Primary Treatment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effect of radiotherapy (RT) on ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration (USgFNA) and sonographic characteristics in the assessment of cervical lymph nodes (LNs) in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients after primary treatment.
  
  
  METHODS
  88 treated OSCC patients underwent 111 USgFNAs of the neck LNs after US evaluation. Among them, 48 USgFNAs were performed on 40 patients following RT and 63 USgFNAs on 48 patients without previous RT. The results of USgFNA and the US characteristics were compared between these two groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  USgFNA had a sensitivity of 88.0%, specificity of 91.4%, positive predictive value (PPV) of 88.0%, negative predictive value (NPV) of 91.4% and accuracy of 90.0% in patients without previous RT, and a sensitivity of 97.1%, specificity of 83.3%, PPV of 94.3%, NPV of 90.9% and accuracy of 93.5% in those with previous neck RT. The ranges of the short-axis and long-axis length were 13.3 ± 8.0 mm (mean ± SD) versus 17.8 ± 9.1 mm, and 18.6 ± 9.0 mm versus 24.4 ± 10.9 mm for recurrent LNs from patients with, versus without, previous RT (both ps < 0.05), respectively. 76.5% (26/34) of the recurrent nodes after RT and 48% (12/25) of the recurrent nodes without previous RT exhibited an irregular margin (p < 0.05). Additionally, irradiated recurrent LNs had a significantly decreased percentage of discernable calcification compared with non-irradiated recurrent nodes (48% versus 20.6%, p < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  RT had influence on sonographic characteristics but no influence on USgFNA in diagnosing recurrent LNs in treated OSCC patients.
authors.affiliation: Department and Graduate Institute of Pathology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.|Department of Otolaryngology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.|Oriental Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Wu-Chia
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.|Oriental Institute of Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Po-Wen
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chi-Te
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Division of Radiation Oncology, Department of Radiology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Pei-Wei
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Shueng
authors.affiliation: Division of Radiation Oncology, Department of Radiology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chen-Hsi
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Hsieh
authors.affiliation: Department and Graduate Institute of Pathology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yih-Leong
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Li-Jen
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Liao
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D061765:Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Fine Needle Aspiration; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy