Prevalence and distribution of cervical lymph node metastases in HPV-positive and HPV-negative oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Highlights: • Higher prevalence of clinical neck nodes in p16-positive SCC. • Higher prevalence of pathological neck nodes in p16-positive SCC. • Similar neck node level distribution in p16-negative and p16-positive SCC. In oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OP-SCC), the prevalence and distribution of clinical and pathological lymph node metastasis in the neck have been extensively reported. It served as the basis for consensus recommendations on the selection of the lymph node levels in the neck requiring a treatment. The objective of the study is to compare the prevalence and distribution of neck node metastases in HPV+ and HPV− OP-SCC from a large series of patients with OP-SCC who underwent a cervical lymph-node dissection (LND) as part of their treatment.