Publication:

Survival and clinical outcomes of salvage surgery in recurrent oral cavity cancer: a single institutional experience

Background Oral cavity is the most common site of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in India with more than 70% presenting in locally advanced stage. Recurrence in all stages of OCSCC occurs in up to 50% of patients, with most failures being local and/or regional relapses. The present study was done to analyze clinical outcomes of patients undergoing salvage surgery (SS) following recurrent OCSCC.

Methods A retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data of 82 patients with recurrent OCSCC was done in the department of head and neck surgery.

Results At the end of 1 year post SS for OCSCC 62 out of 82 (75.6%) patients were alive without disease. At the end of 2 year after SS 22 out of 45 patients were alive of which 21 were alive without disease and 1 was alive with disease (48.8%). At the end of 3 years, 10 out of 25 of which 9 were alive without disease and 1 patient was alive with disease (40%). Median disease-free survival (DFS) post SS was 13.50 months (0-47 months). DFS and overall survival (OS) post SS showed significantly better results in patients treated with surgery along with RT as primary treatment, patients with late recurrence, patients with early recurrent T stage, patients with free margins at SS and in patients who received adjuvant radiation therapy post SS.

Conclusions Salvage Surgery is one of the best treatment options for recurrent OCSCC with acceptable survival rates.