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Updated: Mar 1, 2026
Intraoperative Assessment of Resection Margins in Oral Cavity Cancer: This is the Way
Published on: May 10, 2021
Salvage surgery for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas: A retrospective study from 2005 to 2013
Pierre Philouze1, Julien Péron2, Marc Poupart1
1Department of Head and Neck Surgery, Hospital de la Croix Rousse Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon, France.
Background:
In the case of a locoregional recurrence of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, the curative standard of care is surgery. Our main purpose of this study was to determine the preoperative prognostic factors that would allow us to select the patients on whom we could expect good results with salvage surgery.
Methods:
We conducted a monocentric retrospective study from 2005 to 2013. It included all patients treated for a recurrence of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma with surgery. Their initial treatment included radiotherapy.
Results:
Fifty-two patients were included. Poor prognostic factors for survival were the cT status (P = .0039) and local recurrences versus secondary localizations in irradiated areas (P = .016) and a relapse less than a year after the end of the initial treatment (P = .050). Recurrence-free survival was 19% at 5 years. Twenty-nine percent of patients presented local complications, which were mainly fistulas and hemorrhaging at the surgical site.
Conclusion:
According to the high morbimortality, it is important to carefully select the right patients for surgery.
