1988 Volume 34 Issue 8 Pages 1675-1682
Ninety four patients of squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue were reviewed between 1970 and 1985. In fifty-seven patients (about 60%), retreatments were needed because of recurrent or metastatic disease after initial therapy. However, only 35 patients underwent further curative treatment and 22 patients could not be radically treated because of an advanced, inoperable disease and the general poor systemic status.
As the clinical stage advanced, recurrence rate increased but curative treatment decreased. Therefore, the prognosis in recurrence cases of advanced stage was poor. The favorable salvage rates were found in the following cases: local recurrence of early stage without nodal involvement, cervical metastasis without primary recurrence, and the case in which aggressive salvage operation could be performed.
The 2-year-crude survival rate of nonrecurrence cases after initial therapy was 73.0% (27/37), 29.8% (17/57) in all recurrence cases and 49.0% (17/35) when limited to cases in which curative salvage treatment was possible. The overall 2-year crude survival rate was 46.8% (44/94).
