The surgical treatment of failure in cervical lymph nodes after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma: an analysis of 83 patients

Objective: To analyze the results of neck dissection in patients who failed in cervical lymph nodes after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Methods: Eighty-three patients who received neck dissection due to lymph node persistence or recurrence after definitive radiotherapy were analyzed retrospectively according to the following relevant factors: age, sex, the interval between completion of radiotherapy and surgery, rN stage, postoperative radiotherapy given or not, the adjacent tissues involved or not and the number of positive nodes. Kaplan-Meier method, Log-rank method and Cox method were used in the statistical analysis. Results: The 1-, 3- and 5-year overall survival rates were 80.7%, 47.1% and 34.9%. The interval between completion of radiotherapy and surgery, postoperative radiotherapy given or not, the adjacent tissues involved or not were significantly prognostic factors in statistic analysis. Conclusions: Neck dissection can be applied in the management of cervical lymph node failure in nasopharyngeal carcinoma after radiotherapy. Postoperative radiotherapy should be considered in patients with capsular invasion and/or adjacent tissue involvement