Elective Neck Dissection and Observation Management in Early Stage Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

For early stage oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), primary tumor resection has been considered as the standard of care. The optimal management of the neck in early OSCC with clinical node-negative remained controversial in recent decades. With high rate of occult metastasis and poor survival rate when regional recurrence occurred, elective neck dissection (END) has been widely advocated as a routine neck management in many centers. However, critics of END argue that this practice subjects more than 70% of patients to unnecessary surgery that may cause increased treatment cost and postoperative complications. Thus, this article not only reviewed recent evidences but also provided our experience to determine the impact of END and observation in early stage OSCC patients.