Combined surgery and postoperative irradiation in the treatment of cervical lymph nodes.

One hundred seventy-three patients with squamous carcinomas of the laryngopharynx, oral cavity, and oropharynx received planned, combined resection of the primary neoplasm and radical neck dissection (when N1, N2, or N3 lymphadenopathy was present) followed by megavoltage irradiation to the primary sites and bilateral cervical regions between 1975 and 1982. Radical neck dissections were performed in all patients with N2 and N3 cervical lymphadenopathy, in 90% of those with N1 necks, but in only 4% whose necks were staged NO. Neck failures occurred in 10%, 22%, 19%, and 38% of patients with stages N0, N1, N2, and N3 necks, respectively. The most ominous pathologic feature was soft-tissue extension in the radical neck dissection specimen. Initially clinically benign contralateral lymph nodes became involved in only 9% of these patients.