Factors of Chung et al Associated with Favorable Salvage Surgery of a Recurrent Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck

Patient selection: salvage therapy of recurrent head and neck squamous cell carcinoma presenting with lymph node metastases

Favorable findings affecting overall survival:

(1) isolated regional recurrence (with no evidence of distant metastases)

(2) absence of extracapsular spread (presumably in salvage specimen)

(3) initial tumor designation N0 or N1

(4) late recurrence (time to recurrence >= 6 months)

(5) outside of the previous treatment field

The more favorable factors present, the better the overall survival.