Long-term neck control rates after complete response to chemoradiation in patients with advanced head and neck cancer

To examine the long-term neck failure outcome in patients with advanced head and neck cancer treated on larynx/organ preservation protocols at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

Two hundred thirteen patients were enrolled from 1983 through 1995 on larynx/organ preservation protocols receiving induction chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy alone or with concomitant chemotherapy. Eighty-six patients with node-positive disease received definitive chemoradiotherapy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. A median dose of 70 Gy was delivered. The median follow-up of the surviving patients was 9 years.

Sixty-five patients with node-positive disease achieved a clinical complete response and were observed after chemoradiation without immediate neck dissection. The crude rate of subsequent neck failure among those patients according to initial nodal classification was: N1 14% (3 of 21), N2: 15% (6 of 40), N3: 0% (0 of 4). The median overall survival of these patients was: N1: 12.2 years; N2: 6.5 years; N3: 0.8 years. Patients who experienced a complete response to induction chemotherapy in the neck had improved overall survival (53% vs. 29%; P = 0.005) and a lower incidence of neck failure (10% vs. 24%; P = 0.14) when compared with those patients who had less than a complete response.

Our data suggests that in patients with advanced neck disease who have a clinical complete response in the neck to chemoradiation long-term neck control is 85% or greater without neck dissection. Whether functional imaging or treatment response to induction chemotherapy would provide better discrimination of the 10% to 15% who may experience neck relapse is an important question for future research initiatives.