Abstract:

Objective

The effect of chemotherapy and radiotherapy in the comprehensive treatment for tongue squamous cell carcinoma （TSCC） is still not clear enough. The evaluation of the prognostic significance of clinical parameters with the patients undergo radical surgery is necessary.

Methods

127 cases who underwent radical surgery for TSCC only from 1996 January to 2007 January， in the Department of Oral and Maxillaficial Surgery， the Second Affiliated Hospital， Sun Yat-Sen University were collected. The clinical parameters were retrospectively analyzed. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier analysis， comparison among groups was analyzed using log-rank test， and multivariate analysis was conducted using the Cox proportional hazard model. Independent risk factors were deducted.

Results

The mean survival time of the 127 patients was 40.17 months， with five-year survival rates of 52.0%， respectively.Univariate analysis showed that age， part of tongue invasion， cervical lymphatic metastasis， tumor clinical stage， and recurrence were risk factors affecting prognosis （P ＜ 0.05）. Multivariate analysis indicated that recurrence was the independent factor for prognosis.

Conclusions

Recurrence is an independent factor affecting the prognosis. The prognosis of patients who underwent radical surgery is similar with those underwent the comprehensive and sequential treatment of the TSCC without lymphatic metastasis. But the prognosis of patients who underwent radical surgery of the TSCC with lymphatic metastasis is poor， and comprehensive and sequential treatment is necessary for this group of cases.

Key words: Tongue squamous cell carcinoma, Surgical treatment, Survival analysis, Prognosis