Abstract
To compare the efficacy of transoral glossectomy and brachytherapy, we reviewed 64 patients suffering from stage I/II squamous cell carcinoma of the oral tongue who underwent either of the treatments from 1998 to 2009. The three-year disease-specific survival rate, loco-regional control rate, and incidence of cervical lymph node metastasis were examined. Among these 64 patients, 30 patients had undergone surgery and 34 had undergone brachytherapy. The three-years disease-specific survival and local control rates of the patients who had undergone surgery were 90.0% and 90.0% in stage I (n = 20), and 80.0% and 100.0% in stage II (n = 10), respectively. On the other hand, those rates of patients who had undergone brachytherapy were 90.0% and 63.0% in stage I (n = 10), and 81.2% and 80.6% in stage II (n = 24) respectively. A statistically significant difference was not observed. The incidence of secondary cervical lymph node metastasis was observed to be 33.5% (surgery) and 30.3% (brachytherapy) with no statistically significant difference between these therapies. The overall control rate of this cervical lymph node metastasis was 63.6%. The three-year disease-specific survival rate, local control rate, and incidence of cervical lymph node metastases were also assessed and no statistically significant difference was observed.
