A clinicopathological study of secondary neck metastasis of oral squamous cell cercinoma.

A clinicopathological study was made of 23 cases of oral squamous cell carcinoma with secondary metastasis to cervical lymph nodes, and the following findings were obtained.1. Secondary lymph nodes metastasis appeared in 36% of N0 cases.2. Clinical or histological factors (primary site, T-classification, age, treatment methods of primary tumor, degree of differentiation, mode of invasion, etc.) were not very available for the prediction of secondary metastasis.3. The sites of metastasis were level I or level II in most cases.4. The control rate of cervical tumor of secondary metastasis cases treated with radical neck dissection was 84%, which is almost equal to that of first metastasis cases.5. These findings suggest that elective neck dissection is not necessary for oral squamous cell carcinoma.