Impact of elective neck dissection on regional recurrence and survival in cN0 staged oral maxillary squamous cell carcinoma

SummaryTo evaluate the impact of elective neck dissection (END) on regional recurrence and survival in cN0 staged patients with maxillary squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).Eighty-six patients with maxillary SCC and clinically staged N0 cervical lymph-nodes were evaluated in this single center retrospective study.Seventy-four of 86 patients were included in this analysis, of which 36 patients were treated with END, 38 without END. Following END, pathohistologically verified regional lymph-nodes in the initially cN0 neck were found in three (8%) patients. In both the +END and non-END group regional recurrences occurred exclusively in patients with T4 primaries. The overall regional recurrence rate was 17% in the +END and 18% in the non-END group, respectively. The 5-year overall survival rate for all tumor stages combined (T1-T4) was 86% in the +END group and 82% in the −END group. Within the patients groups with T4 tumors, 5-year overall survival was 81% for the +END group and 56% for the −END group.Over all tumor stages combined (T1-T4), END did not significantly improve overall survival rates and did not prevent the rate of regional recurrence in cN0 staged patients with maxillary alveolar, gingival and palatal SCC. However, in the subgroup of patients with locally advanced T4 tumors, their seemed to be a clear tendency towards improvement of overall survival in the END group. END can therefore be recommended for these patients.