Neck dissection for hypopharyngeal cancer

Abstract

We reviewed 240 patients of hypopharyngeal cancers who underwent neck dissection between1978 and 1994 at Cancer Institute Hospital in Tokyo. Radical neck dissection (RND) was performed for 175 sides of the neck and neck failures developed on 7 sides (failure rate; 4%). Modified radical neck dissection (mRND) was performed for 147 sides and neck failure was seen in 3 sides (2.0%). Forty two sides received lateral neck dissection (LND) and neck faileure appeared on one side (2.3%). Totally local recurrences appeared on 11 sides within the dissection field among 364 sides, then overall neck recurrence rate was 3.0%. We did not find definite relationship between the types of neck dissection, number of pathological LN metastases and incidence of neck failure. Because of low recurrence rate of mRND cases, conservative neck dissection may be more widely indicated for hypopharyngeal cancer patients in near future.