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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Modified Radical Neck Dissection for Cervical Metastasis
Published on: February 20, 2026
The effect of neck dissection on quality of life after chemoradiation
Amy Anne Donatelli-Lassig1, Sonia A Duffy, Karen E Fowler
1Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. donat037@umn.edu
Objective:
To determine differences in quality of life (QOL) between patients with head and neck cancer who receive chemoradiation versus chemoradiation and neck dissection.
Methods:
A prospective cohort study was conducted at two tertiary otolaryngology clinics and a Veterans Administration hospital.
Sample:
103 oropharyngeal patients with Stage IV squamous cell carcinoma treated via chemoradiation +/- neck dissection.
Intervention:
self-administered health survey to collect health, demographic, and QOL information pretreatment and 1 year later.
Main Outcome Measures:
QOL via SF-36 and HNQoL. Descriptive statistics were calculated for health/clinical characteristics, demographics, and QOL scores. t tests evaluated changes in QOL over time.
Results:
Sixty-five patients underwent chemoradiation and 38 patients underwent chemoradiation and neck dissection. Only the pain index of the SF-36 showed a significant difference between groups (P < 0.05) with the neck dissection group reporting greater pain.
Conclusions:
After post-treatment neck dissection, patients experience statistically significant decrement in bodily pain domain scores, but other QOL scores are similar to those of patients who underwent chemoradiation alone.
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