gms | German Medical Science

85th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

28.05. - 01.06.2014, Dortmund

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The incidence of regional occult micrometastases in patients with head and neck squamous cells carcinoma

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  • corresponding author Patrik Stefanicka - Univ. ENT Dept., Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Matus Valach - Alfa medical pathology, Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Milan Profant - Univ. ENT Dept., Bratislava, Slovakia

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. 85. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. Dortmund, 28.05.-01.06.2014. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2014. Doc14hnod277

doi: 10.3205/14hnod277, urn:nbn:de:0183-14hnod2773

Published: April 14, 2014

© 2014 Stefanicka et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Objectives: The aim of the study was to determine incidence of occult micrometastases by semiserial sectioning and immunohistochemistry with cytokeratin in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma with clinically negative neck.

Material and methods: Eighteen patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck who primary underwent surgical treatment of the primary tumor and elective selective neck dissection were included in the study. Lymph nodes of neck dissection specimen were evaluated by semiserial sectioning at 200 μm interval with hematoxylin-eosin staining and imunohistochemical stain method using pan-cytokeratin AE1/3.

Results: Of 18 patients, 28 neck dissections were harvested 600 lymph nodes. The incidence of occult micrometastases was 22.2% per patient, 14.3% per neck and 1% per lymph node. In 4 patients was pN upgrading from pN0 to pN+, 28.6%.

Conclusion: The incidence of occult micrometastases in head and neck cancer patients detected by semiserial sectioning with cytokeratin immunohistochemistry is higher than conventional pathologic techniques. Use of this technique should more accurately identify patients for postoperative adjuvant treatment.

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