[Head and neck cancers--significance of salvage operation]

The crude and determinate 5 year survivals out of 264 cases were 28.4% and 34.6% respectively. There were 136 cases in which the recurrence located at the primary site only. Whereas surgery performed on 81 cases resulted in the determinal survival rate of 58.0%, radiation therapy for 42 cases could attained only 19.5% survival. Cryotherapy were performed on 4 localized recurrent lesions and all but one which died of other cause are living well for more than 5 years. In 58 cases, the recurrence appeared only in neck nodes. Determinate 5 year survival rate of 64.7% could be obtained out of 40 cases treated by radical neck dissection. Only 7.1% of cases treated otherwise survived more than 5 years. Results of treatment were poor in the 39 cases in which both the primary and neck nodes were involved by recurrences. Only one case survived more than 5 years which had undergone composite operation. Introduction of composite operation simultaneously combined with reconstruction extended the indication of radical therapy. Seventy-eight cases which would have been the candidate for palliative treatment underwent this type of surgery, and 41.0% of them survived more than 5 years. It is noteworthy that radical treatment is still reserved for many recurrent cases of head and neck carcinoma. And salvage operation, if indicated, promises the best results among various methods of treatment.