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February 2011SCOTTSDALE—Patients who had residual neck disease after treatment for a primary head and neck squamous carcinoma and then underwent neck dissection had comparable survival rates to those who had their disease resolved after their initial chemotherapy and radiation treatment, according to a retrospective analysis from researchers at the University of Louisville in Kentucky presented here Jan. 27.
The study, presented at the Triological Society’s Combined Sections Meeting, provides evidence that neck dissection plays an important role when dealing with residual disease in patients who have been treated for head and neck malignancies.
“In the age of chemotherapy and irradiation for definitive head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, the most effective treatment of the neck has not been well characterized,” said Laura Dooley, MD, a third-year resident in Louisville’s surgery department, who worked with Keven Potts, MD, and Jeffrey Bumpous, MD, both of Louisville’s department of surgery. “The literature describes variances in treatment of residual neck disease that range from mandatory neck dissection to the selective use of neck dissection based on imaging studies after treatment such as PET or CT scans.”