[Resection of recurrent neck cancers with replacement of the carotid artery]

The management of patients with recurrent neck cancer invading the carotid artery is controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the overall survival and healthy survival years (QALY) as well as the patency of carotid revascularization after enbloc tumor resection followed by complementary radiotherapy.

From 2000 to 2016, 42 consecutive patients with recurrent neck cancer invading the carotid artery underwent resection of the tumor associated with reconstruction of the carotid artery with a PTFE prosthesis (n=31) or with a saphenous vein graft (n=11). In 11 cases, resection was associated with musculocutaneous flap coverage. The primary tumor was a squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx (20 patients) or of the pharynx (9 patients), undifferentiated carcinoma of unknown origin (10 patients) and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (3 patients). All patients had postoperative radiotherapy (50-70Gy) supplemented in 16 of them by chemotherapy. Nine patients had metastatic dissemination at the time of reoperation with a recurrent tumor ulcerated to the skin in 5 of them.

The combined 30-day mortality and stroke rate was nil. Postoperative morbidity included dysphagia (n=8), vocal cord paralysis (n=6), late wound healing delay (n=2), transient mandibular claudication (n=1) and partial necrosis of the musculocutaneous flap (n=1). No infection and no thrombosis of the bypass were observed during follow-up [median: 31 months, range: 8-167 months]. Twenty-one patients (50%) died from the consequences of the spread of cancer, which had become metastatic, but without local recurrence. The 5-year survival rate was 50.9±8.3%. The median healthy survival year (QALY) was 3.38 [95% CI: 1.70-4.54] with a significant difference between patients without metastasis at the time of reoperation [n=33; QALY=4.02] and those with metastases [n=9; QALY=0.43; P=0.005]. Healthy life expectancy was also significantly longer in patients with laryngeal cancer [n=20, QALY=4.95] compared to patients with other types of tumors [n=22, QALY=1.67; P=0.032].

In the absence of metastases, enbloc resection of recurrent neck cancers invading the carotid artery improves the duration and quality of patient survival.