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Feasibility of Preservation of the Submandibular Gland During Neck Dissection in Patients With Early-Stage Oral Cancer

  • Head and Neck Oncology
  • Published:
Annals of Surgical Oncology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Background

The impact of submandibular gland (SMG) preservation during neck dissection on the survival of patients with early-stage oral squamous-cell carcinoma (OSCC) remains undocumented.

Methods

The medical records of all patients with early-stage OSCC (stage I and II) who underwent wide excision of the primary tumor and simultaneous neck dissection between 1999 and 2006 at our facility were retrospectively reviewed.

Results

We analyzed 408 patients, including 33 patients with and 375 patients without SMG preservation. The 5-year disease-free and overall survival rates were 78.8% and 90.9% for the patients with SMG preservation and 75.4% and 90.4% for the patients without SMG preservation, and these differences were not statistically significant (P = 0.79, P = 0.99, respectively). Similar survival rates between patients with and without SMG preservation were observed in those with oral tongue squamous-cell carcinoma (SCC) and with buccal SCC. Patients with T2 OSCC with SMG preservation had significantly lower 5-year disease-free survival rate than those without SMG preservation (P = 0.02), but overall survival rates were similar between these two groups.

Conclusions

Preservation of the SMG during neck dissection may be oncologically safe in patients with T1 OSCC, but the feasibility of SMG preservation seems less clear for T2 OSCC.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported in part by the National Science Council of the Republic of China (NSC 98-2314-B-002-046-MY3) and in part by the National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH.98-M1238). We thank the staff of the Eighth Core Lab, Department of Medical Research, National Taiwan University Hospital for technical support during the study.

Conflicts of interest

None.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Tseng-Cheng Chen MD, Pei-Jen Lou MD, PhD, Jenq-Yuh Ko MD, PhD, Tsung-Lin Yang MD, PhD, Ya-Ling Hu RN, MSc & Cheng-Ping Wang MD

  2. National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan

    Tseng-Cheng Chen MD, Pei-Jen Lou MD, PhD, Jenq-Yuh Ko MD, PhD, Tsung-Lin Yang MD, PhD, Ya-Ling Hu RN, MSc & Cheng-Ping Wang MD

  3. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine and College of Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Tsung-Lin Yang MD, PhD & Cheng-Ping Wang MD

  4. Department of Otolaryngology, National Taiwan University Hospital Yun-Lin Branch, Taipei, Yun-Lin, Taiwan

    Tseng-Cheng Chen MD

  5. Department of Otolaryngology, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Wu-Chia Lo MD

  6. School of Nursing, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ya-Ling Hu RN, MSc

Authors
  1. Tseng-Cheng Chen MD
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  2. Pei-Jen Lou MD, PhD
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  3. Jenq-Yuh Ko MD, PhD
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  4. Tsung-Lin Yang MD, PhD
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  5. Wu-Chia Lo MD
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  6. Ya-Ling Hu RN, MSc
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  7. Cheng-Ping Wang MD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cheng-Ping Wang MD.

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Chen, TC., Lou, PJ., Ko, JY. et al. Feasibility of Preservation of the Submandibular Gland During Neck Dissection in Patients With Early-Stage Oral Cancer. Ann Surg Oncol 18, 497–504 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-010-1294-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-010-1294-7

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