We performed partial glossectomies in 21 patients with tongue cancer at Tenri Hospital from 1990 to 2001.
Three patients suffered recurrence: one had local recurrence with regional node recurrence and the others developed recurrence only in the regional lymph nodes. One of them refused all medical treatments and died, and the other patients survived with salvage treatments.
As a medical treatment for early tongue cancer, we consider that elective neck dissection and post-operative radiotherapy are not always necessary and that sometimes partial glossectomy is sufficient.