Evaluation of recurrent nodal disease after definitive radiation therapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma: Diagnostic value of fine‐needle aspiration cytology and CT scan

Recurrent nodal disease in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) after definitive radiotherapy presents a difficult clinical problem. This cohort of patients poses a diagnostic challenge to the head and neck surgeon because evaluation of the post‐irradiated neck, both clinically and radiologically, is known to be difficult, and it is not uncommon for neck dissection specimen in suspected recurrent nodal disease to contain no viable tumor cells. Currently, there is no well‐accepted method for the preoperative determination of the presence of malignancy in these nodal diseases.