A meta-analysis on selective versus comprehensive neck dissection in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients with clinically node-positive neck

•Five studies with a total of 443 patients were included in this meta-analysis.•SND achieves similar regional control in cN+ OSCC patients compared with CND.•SND gets similar disease-specific survival in cN+ OSCC patients compared with CND.•SND achieves similar overall survival in cN+ OSCC patients compared with CND.

SummaryObjective: Properly management of cervical lymph node metastases is a critical treatment for patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). However there is no consensus on the optimal treatment for oral cancer patients with clinically node-positive (cN+) neck. This study aims to access the feasibility of selective neck dissection in oral cancer patients with cN+ neck. Method: We searched PubMed and EMBASE up to April 2015 to identify the studies which compared selective neck dissection (SND) with comprehensive neck dissection (CND) in OSCC patients with cN+ neck. Data were extracted by two authors. The meta-analysis was conducted with regional recurrence and disease specific death as primary endpoints. Result: Five studies with a total of 443 patients met our inclusion criteria. No significant difference was found regarding regional recurrence, disease specific death or overall death between the SND and CND group. Conclusion: These findings suggest that cN+ OSCC patients treated with SND in conjunction with adjuvant therapy got comparable clinical outcome to CND.