Failure in the neck following multimodality treatment for advanced head and neck cancer

Failure in the neck is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in head and neck cancer. Patients who underwent therapeutic or elective radical neck dissection at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center between 1960 and 1966 developed recurrence of cancer in the dissected neck in 36.5% of the cases when metastatic carcinoma was present in the cervical lymph nodes at one level, and in 71.3% when metastases were present at multiple levels. Between 1975 and 1980, we treated 114 previously untreated patients with stages III and IV epidermoid carcinoma of the oral cavity, oropharynx, hypopharynx, or larynx with the combination of surgery and elective postoperative radiation therapy. Of these, 106 patients underwent radical neck dissection and 94 were proven to have metastatic carcinoma in the neck. Eleven patients developed recurrences in the neck. Recurrence developed in 16% of 19 patients with metastases at one level, and in 13% of 75 patients with metastases at multiple levels. For 53 patients, radiation therapy was started within 6 weeks after neck dissection and only 2% of them developed recurrence in the neck; for 41 patients, radiation therapy started later than 6 weeks and 29% of them developed recurrence (P less than 0.01). Comparison of these data with our historical control group suggests a decrease in the number of failures in the neck when a multimodality treatment is used. It appears, however, that irradiation must be started within 6 weeks after surgery for the best results.