[Cancer of the oral cavity without palpable adenopathy: value of external irradiation exclusively].

Between 1970 and 1978, 99 patients with a squamous carcinoma of the buccal cavity without palpable lymphadenopathy were treated at the Bergonié Foundation by radiotherapy only and regularly followed up. All received a minimal dose of 40-50 Grays either to the primary node groups or the entire cervico-supraclavicular areas. Eight patients developed an isolated lymph node recurrence, in two cases only in the irradiated zone. The other 6 lymph node recurrences occurred either below the radiotherapy fields when the latter had been limited to the neck (4 cases) or at the posterior border of the field (2 cases). Secondary control was possible in two patients of the 8 by combined radiotherapy and surgery. Exclusive radiotherapy for lymph node areas up to a dose of 45-50 Grays thus protected 92% of patients from a lymph node recurrence. The methods of such irradiation and in particular the extent of radiotherapy fields are then discussed on the basis of the clinical aspects of the tumour.