Management of the neck in early oral cancers: Is the verdict out?

The management of patients with the clinically negative neck (N0) in early oral cancers awaits a clear mandate despite growing evidence favoring elective neck dissection. Having a general policy of operating all N0 neck may indeed increase the number of unnecessary neck dissection in the true pathol...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cancer research and therapeutics 2016-07, Vol.12 (3), p.1114-1116
Main Authors: Rao, Vishal, Patil, Prashant, Rajaram, B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Algorithms
Care and treatment
Disease Management
Follow-Up Studies
Health aspects
Humans
Incidence
Lymph Nodes - pathology
Lymphatic Metastasis
Mouth cancer
Mouth Neoplasms - diagnosis
Mouth Neoplasms - epidemiology
Mouth Neoplasms - therapy
Neck
Neck - pathology
Neck Dissection
Neoplasm Staging
Treatment Outcome
Watchful Waiting
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The management of patients with the clinically negative neck (N0) in early oral cancers awaits a clear mandate despite growing evidence favoring elective neck dissection. Having a general policy of operating all N0 neck may indeed increase the number of unnecessary neck dissection in the true pathological N0 necks, a more commonly encountered scenario. This controversy needs to be looked beyond statistical evidence to address a larger question to "does the neck truly harbor disease," thus, refining the early age old debate. This article highlights the feasibility of wait and watch policy, while elaborating a stringent algorithm to judiciously select patients in whom the neck may be safely observed.
ISSN:0973-1482
1998-4138
DOI:10.4103/0973-1482.164705