A clinical study of treatment and prognosis in oral cancer. Prognosis in patients with cervical lymph node metastasis.

The correlation between clinicopathological factors and prognosis was investigated in 110 patients with primary squamous cell carcinomas of the oral cavity who underwent radical neck dissection at our institution between 1980 and 1993.Metastasis to the cervical lymph nodes was histologically confirmed in 35 cases (31.8%).The five-year survival rate was significantly higher in the patients without metastasis than in the patients with metastasis.In the patients with metastasis, there was no significant correlation between T classification, histological differentiation, mode of invasion, and prognosis. However, a significant correlation between these factors was noted in the patients without metastasis.The prognosis of patients with multiple metastatic nodes was worse than that of patients with single metastatic nodes. Moreover, the prognosis of patients with extranodal metastasis was worse than that of patients without it. However, there was no significant correlation between the site of cervical lymph node metastasis and prognosis.