The management of metastatic neck nodes following induction chemotherapy in N2/3 classification hypopharyngeal carcinoma

Background For patients with less chemosensitive neck nodes, poor prognosis after chemoradiotherapy (CRT) could be predicted and neck dissection is needed. Methods Ninety-two N2/3 hypopharyngeal carcinoma patients were retrospectively studied. According to response after induction chemotherapy (ICT), patients were treated with neck dissection followed by concurrent CRT (CCRT) (group 1), surgery plus postoperative CRT (group 2), or CCRT for primary and regional sites (group 3). Results Overall survival and disease-free survival rates of group 1 were significantly higher than group 2 (p = 0.038, p = 0.031) and group 3 (both p = 0.018). Regional control rate of group 1 was significantly higher than group 3 (p = 0.041). There were no significant differences between groups 1 and 2 regarding local and regional control (p = 0.746, p = 0.302). Conclusions Neck dissection followed by CCRT is the best choice for patients with responsive primary but nonresponsive nodes.