Gabriel Manfro

Relevance of Skip Metastases for Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Oral Tongue and the Floor of the Mouth

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the therapeutic implications of the distribution of neck metastases (NM) in patients with squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the tongue and the floor of the mouth (FOM). PATIENTS AND METHODS: From January 1987 through December 1997, 339 previously untreated patients with T1-2 N0 M0 SCC of the tongue and the FOM underwent primary surgical treatment in our institution. A retrospective review of the pathology reports and outcome of these patients was made to ascertain the prevalence and distribution of NM. Patients were grouped by clinical neck status at the time of neck dissection: elective neck dissection (END) in the NO neck and subsequent therapeutic dissection (STD) in the neck observed which converted clinically to N+ or regional recurrences after END. All patients were classified according to the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC)/UICC 2002 TNM classification. RESULTS: All patients underwent surgical treatment of the primary cancer and had negative margins at frozen section. Overall incidence of NM was 41.3%. Twenty-seven point eight percent of T1 N0 M0 and 48.2% of T2 N0 M0 patients developed NM (P = .0004). Occult neck metastases occurred in 24.1% of patients. Clinically, N+ metastases occurred in 23.6% of patients. The overall incidence of NM in levels IV and V was 8.5%. Neck level IV nodes were involved in only 1.5% of patients in the END group versus 23.7% in the STD group (P < 0.001). Level V was always associated to nodal metastases in other neck levels. Only 2% of patients in our study presented “skip metastases” in the neck. CONCLUSIONS: Neck levels I and II were at great risk for the development of NM (46.9% and 75.3% respectively). Levels IV (6.5%) and V (2%) were rarely involved in our group of patients. The results found in this study support the indication of supraomohyoid neck dissection for N0 and a more comprehensive neck dissection (levels I-V) for N+ patients in Stage I-II SCC of the tongue and FOM. EBM rating: C-4

Management of the N0 neck in moderately advanced squamous carcinoma of the larynx

Objective: To assess the oncological efficacy of selective neck dissection (SND) in patients with T3-4 N0 laryngeal squamous carcinoma. Subjects and Methods: A total of 327 patients underwent 654 neck dissections; each side of the neck was individually evaluated. Results: Three percent of patients who had SND developed regional recurrence (RR) in comparison with 11.7 percent of patients who underwent modified radical neck dissection (MRND) (P = 0.005). Only 3 (0.9%) patients developed RR outside the field of SND. The presence of extracapsular extension (P = 0.002) in node-positive (pN+) group and of microvascular invasion (P = 0.007), together with the type of neck dissection (ND) (P = 0.0003) in node-negative (pN0) group had statistical impact on RR. The development of RR significantly affected disease-specific survival (P = 0.0001). Equivalent rates of RR were found in pN+ (2.6%) or pN0 (3.2%) patients treated with SND (P = 0.98) as well as in pN+ patients who underwent SND (2.6%) or MRND (4.7%) (P = 0.85). Conclusion: This study confirmed the adequacy of SND as a satisfactory staging and therapeutic procedure, and suggests its use in the treatment of limited node-positive (N+) neck.

A análise do padrão de reatividade linfonodal no pescoço pN0 pode fornecer alguma informação prognóstica adicional em pacientes com carcinoma epidermoide de laringe

RESUMOObjetivo:Avaliar a importância da reatividade linfonodal na recidiva e mortalidade em pacientes com carcinoma epidermoide de laringe estagiados como pT3 ou pT4 pN0 M0.Metodos:Entre 2002 e 2005, foram selecionados 105 pacientes matriculados na Secao de Cirurgia de Cabeca e Pescoco do Instituto Nacional de Câncer (INCA) com o diagnostico de carcinoma epidermoide de laringe, com estagio III ou IV. A radioterapia foi indicada em 69 casos. Todos os pacientes foram estagiados como pT3 ou pT4 e pN0. Todos os linfonodos [...]

Can the lymph node reactivity pattern in the pN0 neck analysis provide any additional prognostic information in patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the influence of lymph node reactivity on recurrence and survival rates in a population of pT3 or pT4 pN0 patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS Between 2002 and 2005, 105 patients with LSSC underwent total laryngectomy with bilateral selective neck dissection including levels II, III and IV. Most (69) received PO radiotherapy. All pathological specimens were either pT3 or pT4, and all necks were pN0. All lymph nodes were analyzed and their reactivity status were classified as the following four patterns: follicular hyperplasia associated with humoral response, paracortical hyperplasia associated with cellular response, sinus histiocytosis with no association with specific immune response, or normal lymph node. Only the first two patterns were considered stimulated, whereas the last two were considered non-stimulated. The most prevalent pattern in a particular neck specimen was considered for the analysis of recurrence and survival. RESULTS The total number of lymph nodes studied was 3,648, with an average of 34.7 lymph nodes/neck specimens. The most frequent lymph node reactivity patterns were sinusal histiocytosis (50 cases), paracortical hyperplasia (35 cases), and follicular hyperplasia (20 cases). There was no statistical association of these individual patterns with recurrence rate (p = 0.98) or mortality (p = 0.49). However, there was a statistically significant association between paracortical hyperplasia pattern (related to cellular lymph node immunity) and improved five-year survival (76 versus 60%; log-rank = 0.05). CONCLUSIONS There was a positive correlation between stimulated cellular lymph node pattern and improved 5-year survival rate in patients with pN0 laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma, suggesting the indication of adjuvant treatment for those individuals with decreased immune response, even in the absence of pathologic metastases detected by the usual methods.

Fatores prognósticos em pacientes com carcinoma das células de hürthle

OBJECTIVE: Analyze prognostic factors for disease free survival and specific survival in patients with Hurthle Cell Carcinoma. METHODS: We analyzed, retrospectively, the files of 28 patients treated in the Service of Head and Neck Surgery of the Brazilian National Cancer Institute/INCA from January 1983 to December 2002. Data regarding demographics, clinical aspects, therapeutics and histopathology were collected and related to disease-free survival and disease-specific survival. Patients were classified according to the AJCC 2002 staging system. Data was analyzed by the Epi Info 2002 software. Survival was analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier actuarial method. The median follow-up time was 69 months (range from 10 to 230). RESULTS: Advanced stages (p=.03), distant metastases (p=.03) and, particularly, the pattern of capsular invasion (widely invasive) (p=.0027) influenced negatively the prognosis in the disease-free survival. Analyzing the relationship between specific survival, the pattern of capsular invasion (widely invasive) (p=.02), T stage (p=.013) and, particularly, the presence of distant metastases (p=.0056) presented statistical significance. Five and 10 year disease-free survival was 72% and 55%, respectively, and 5 and 10 year disease-specific survival was 87% and 77%, respectively. CONCLUSION: The presence of distant metastases and widely invasive tumors were the most important negative prognostic factors associated with Hurthle Cell Carcinomas in our study.