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Updated: Dec 27, 2025
Intraoperative Assessment of Resection Margins in Oral Cavity Cancer: This is the Way
Published on: May 10, 2021
Extent of neck dissection for patients with clinical N1 oral cancer
Yasumasa Kakei1, Hirokazu Komatsu2, Tsutomu Minamikawa1
1Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan.
Background:
No clear consensus has been reached on the indication of supraomohyoid neck dissection (SOHND) for clinically positive lymph-node metastasis.
Patients:
Consecutive 100 patients with previously untreated oral cancer treated at Kobe University Hospital were included in this study. All patients were clinically staged as anyTN1M0 and underwent radical dissection of the primary site and level I-V neck dissection as the initial treatment.
Results:
None of the 100 patients had pathological lymph-node metastasis (pLN) to level V. pLN to level IV was observed in two patients with tongue cancer in whom clinical lymph-node metastasis was preoperatively observed at level II.
Conclusions:
Level V may be excluded in the neck dissection for patients with N1 oral cancers. Level IV dissection should be considered in the patient with tongue cancer and clinical lymph-node metastasis at level II.
