Approach to Neck in Early Stage Lip Cancers

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to investigate the role of neck dissection and wait-see policy for neck treatment on prognosis of patients with early stage lip cancer.METHODS: The study included 20 patients ( 5 females, 15 males; mean age 62.64 years; range 38 to 80 years) who underwent surgery for primary site and neck between March 2007 and April 2015 because of T1-2N0 lower lip cancer. Data were reviewed retrospectively on clinical features, localization of the lesion, regional lymph node status, tumor staging, results of surgical treatment and pathological examination. Tumor was excised with 1 cm surgical margin in all cases. The tissue defect was reconstructed by primary closure or varied reconstrction techniqcs. All T2N0 stage patients underwent neck dissection. If the tumor was located in the middle of the lip, bilateral neck dissection, otherwise unilateral neck dissection was performed. RESULTS: Histopathologic diagnosis was squamous cell carcinoma in all cases. The mean follow-up period was 45.82 months. There were 15 patients with clinically diagnosed T1N0 tumors and 5 patients with clinically diagnosed T2N0 tumors. For T1N0 tumors, 3 suprahyoid, 2 bilateral supraomohyoid neck dissections were performed. Supraomohyoid neck dissection was performed in bilaterally in 3 T2N0 tumors, and suprahyoid neck dissection was performed in remaing 2 tumors. CONCLUSION: Four years survival rates without illness were significantly higher in cases with early stage lip cancer. Our results present that neck dissection may not be necessary in patients with T1N0 lower lip cancers.

Keywords

• lip cancer; early stage; neck dissection
• dudak kanseri; erken evre; boyun diseksiyonu