Abstract
Head and neck cancer patients who were treated at the National Kyushu Cancer Center during the past two decades were reviewed and analyzed according to the age group. As compared to the first decade, patients of high age group (older than 70 years old) increased in the second decade, but most of patients received radiation therapy alone.
In patients who received radical neck dissection during the course of treatment, the cause of death were analyzed. In high age group, many patients died due to the postoperative accidents or other diseases such as heart failure. In contrast, younger aged patients mainly died because of uncontrollable recurrenec in the regional or distant metastases.
These results indicate that the difference of systemic as well as local immune function between young and old age group is to be considered in the treatmment head and neck cancer patients.
Using an immunopathological method, we are now investigating the degree of the local biological response in the lymphnodes obtained at surgery.
