[The value of surgical therapy in cervical nodal metastases]

Aside from distant metastasis, cervical nodal metastases are the worst prognostic indicator for survival in patients with head and neck carcinoma. Presence of nodal metastases decreases survival by fifty percent. This paper refers to surgical therapy of cervical adenopathy known as the radical neck dissection, for clinically positive nodal metastases, follow by chemotherapy or radiotherapy depending on the primary tumor site.