[Recovery surgery in cancer of the tongue. Apropos of 101 cases].

Results of 101 salvage glossectomies, after unsuccessful treatment of cancer of tongue by radiotherapy, showed a 3-year survival of 39% and a 5-year of 31%. Carcinologic failures represented 81% of causes of death: 17% due to distant metastases, 6% to a second focus and principally 32% to local recurrence. Local recurrence varied as a function of tumor size but also of site and type of surgical treatment. Tumors of the mobile tongue have a relatively good prognosis, even when the total organ is involved, with attachment to floor of mouth if an anterior transverse glossectomy is performed. Inversely, lateralized tumors spreading to base and to the mobile tongue treated by partial longitudinal glossectomy tend to have a high frequency of failure of local therapy, probably partly avoidable by wider excision. These same local failures of treatment are the cause of the worsening prognosis after total glossectomy in patients who had been poorly selected perhaps and presented extralingual spread not controlled by surgery. Finally, the authors emphasize the need for a collaboration of the patient in the choice of therapy, which involves surgery with functional sequelae that risk to be extremely heavy.