Abstract
Forty-five cases of carcinoma of the tongue were newly diagnosed and treated in our hospital of U. O. E. H between February 1990 and March 1999. The five-year survival rates were 71.8% overall, 100% for stage I, 79.4% for stage II, and 50% for stage III+IV.
Prophylactic neck dissection was not performed in the clinically negative neck at our institution. As a result, cervical metastasis was not found in T1NO, but was found in 3 of 15 T2NO cases, and was not found in T3, T4NO cases. Therefore, we thought that prophylactic neck dissection was not necessary for T1NO carcinoma of the tongue or for most cases of T2N0 carcinoma of the tongue.
However, we thought that further examination is necessary since our series is small, and many other reports have suggested prophylactic neck dissection.
