Background: Management of the neck in laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LSCC) is essential to oncologic control and survival. We aim to describe patterns and rates of clinical/pathologic lymph node disease, elective neck dissection (END), and occult lymph node metastasis (LNM) in patients with surgically-managed LSCC.
Methods: Retrospective cohort study of patients in the National Cancer Database (NCDB) diagnosed with LSCC between January 2004 and December 2016 who underwent primary surgery.
Results: Seven thousand eight hundred and seventy-six patients met inclusion criteria. For cN0 patients, the rates of END and occult LNM both increased with tumor stage and were highest for supraglottic tumors. Predictors of occult LNM included supraglottic site, pathologic T3 and T4 stage, positive margins, and presence of lymphovascular invasion (p < 0.05).
Conclusions: The propensity for cervical LNM in surgically-managed LSCC varies based on primary tumor site and stage, and a variety of disease factors increase risk of occult LNM.
Keywords: head and neck; larynx cancer; metastasis; neck dissection; squamous cell carcinoma.
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