The cervical lymphnodes of 94 cases of the head and neck squamous cell carcinoma with radical neck dissection were histopathologically examined. The prognosis of the group without any metastatic nodes had no significant differences from that of the group with 1 or 2 metastatic nodes. In the group with less than 2 metastatic nodes, the prognosis was so good and the 5-year survival rate was 74.7%. But, in the group with more than 3 metastatic nodes, the prognosis was very poor and the 5-year survival rate was only 24.4%, because the distant metastasis increased in number to three times of the other. Therefore, the postoperative systemic anticancer therapy is considered to be necessary on the occasion of the case with more than 3 metastatic nodes.
