[Clinical study of cervical lymph node metastasis in maxillary cancer patients]

The clinical characteristics of lymph node metastasis in maxillary cancer patients were analyzed. Thirty-eight (23%) of the 166 patients who received intial treatment at Kurume University Hospital between 1978 and 2003 had cervical lymph node metastasis at the time of diagnosis. The disease-specific 5-year survival rate was 63% in the lymph node metastasis negative group and 18% in the lymph node metastasis positive group (p<0.01). There was a statistically significant correlation between bone invasion and lymph node metastasis in the case of the group with bone invasion of the posterior wall of the maxillary sinus. Cervical neck lymph node metastasis developed in 38 (28%) of 135 posterior-wall-invasion-positive group and in none (0%) of the 31 patients in the negative group (p<0.01). Because distant metastasis is common in patients with lymph node metastasis, postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy is highly recommended.