Content area
Full text
Background: Lymph node metastasis occurs commonly in level I to level III area of neck in patients with oral tongue carcinoma. The incidence of retropharyngeal lymph node metastasis (RPLNM) from oral tongue carcinoma is very rare. However, in some postoperative cases, RPLNM possibly occurs in retropharyngeal region.
Objective: In this study, we investigated clinical features, treatment and prognosis of oral tongue carcinoma patients with RPLNM.
Methods: The data of 6 subjects with RPLNM from oral tongue carcinoma treated from April 2000 to April 2005 were retrospectively analyzed. The incidence, clinical manifestation, imaging characteristics, treatment, and prognosis were reviewed and described.
Results: Among the 176 treated patients with established diagnose of oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma, 6 underwent recurrence in retropharyngeal lymph node, and the incidence was 3.41% (6/176). All the 6 patients had underwent neck dissection before the occurrence of RPLNM; the recurrence interval was 5 to 19 months with a median time of 9 months. Three patients were treated with radiotherapy including the other 3 with chemotherapy. The survival time of all patients ranged from 3 to 45 months with the medial time of 17.2 months.
Conclusions: RPLNM from oral tongue carcinoma indicates malignant behavior with extremely poor prognosis. Radiotherapy might be a way to improve overall survival.
Keywords: Oral neoplasms; retropharyngeal lymph node metastasis; prognosis.
Introduction
The incidence of retropharyngeal lymph node metastasis (RPLNM) in patients with oral tongue cancer is very low, and the retropharyngeal space is a potential space located between the posterior pharyngeal wall and prevertebral fascia [1-3]. For these reasons, RPLNM is easily to be omitted [2, 3]. This study aimed to analyze the metastasis pattern, diagnosis and treatment of RPLNM by retrospective study of the relevant oral tongue carcinoma cases.
Subjects and Methods
Clinical data
The patient group included 4 males and 2 females, and the age ranged from 41 to 64 years, with the median age of 49 years old. The common features included: (1) the primary tumor located in the oral tongue with confirmed pathological diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma; (2) all the patients had neck dissection surgery history before the occurrence of RPLNM. All relapsed occurred in retropharyngeal lymph node with no recurrence in primary site; (3) operation procedures included ipsilateral neck lymph node...