[Clinical studies on cancer of the tongue]

Thirty-nine previously untreated patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue were treated by irradiation or a combination of irradiation and surgery, with or without chemotherapy, between January 1971 and December 1980. All of the patients had a follow-up period of at least nine years. Twenty-two patients were men and 17 were women. The average age was 50.1 years, with a range of 30 to 74 years. The absolute five-year survival rate was 82.1% and the cumulative ten-year survival rate 76.9% for these 39 patients. Cervical node metastases were clinically found on admission in 14 patients whose five-year survival rate was 64.3%, whereas it was 92.0% for 25 patients without metastasis. The absolute five-year survival rate decreased from 92.3% for patients with stage I lesions to 90.9%, 87.5% and 42.9% for those with stage II, stage III and stage IV lesions, respectively. Most of the patients received external irradiation and intraoral electron beam therapy. External irradiation was administered to the upper neck in all but one of 25 patients with TxN0 lesions. Subsequently partial glossectomy was performed in 12 of the 25 patients. Hemiglossectomy and hemimandibulectomy were used for 5 of 16 patients with TxN1-3 lesions. No patients with TxN0 lesions developed neck lymph node metastasis. Twenty-nine of the 39 patients had no tumor recurrence either locally or regionally for five years and 27 for nine years. None of the patients had major post-irradiation complications.