Evaluation of the neck lymph node involvement in outcome of iranian patients with maxillofacial squamous cell carcinoma

Background: Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the predominant malignancy of oral cavity (about 90% of oral malignant lesions). This study aimed to evaluate the long-term extent of lymph node involvement of the neck among patients with maxillofacial SCC after the surgery. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 32 patients with maxillofacial SCC who underwent surgery were evaluated for any type of lymph node involvement (necrotic, reactive, or metastatic) at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. Data was acquitted through clinical and paraclinical examinations such as CT scan, ultrasound of the neck area, pathology and histology. Results: The SCC of posterior mandible had more lymph node involvement (P=0.02). Compared to moderately/poorly differentiated cases, patients with well-differentiated histopathological grade had lower lymph node involvement (P=0.01). TNM stage had no influence on lymph node involvement (P>0.05). Patients with neck dissection and reconstruction (P=0.003) as well as those who received postoperative radiotherapy or chemotherapy/radiotherapy together (P=0.001 and 0.005 respectively) had lower degree of lymph node involvement. Post-operative lymph node involvement was significantly more in patients with the positive CT scan status of bilateral metastatic lymphadenopathy in zones 1, 2 and 3 before the operation in comparison to other statuses like bilateral benign lymph nodes (p=0.001) or lymphadenopathy in just one or two zones (1and/or 2) (P>0.05). Conclusion:We determined the effect of different parameters on lymph node involvement and determined some positive and negative correlations. Furthermore, some parameters like age, gender, and TNM staging had no influence on the mentioned outcome