The Role of Mouth Floor and Segmental Mandible Resection in the Radical Operation of Tongue Cancer

Objective To compare the metastatic and survival rates of two types of surgical management and to evaluate the clinical role of mouth floor resection and segmental mandibulectomy in radical operation of tongue cancer.Methods 33 patients with UICC T2、T3、N0 tongue cancer were divided into two groups.In the study group,16 patients were treated by continous operation including a radical resection of the primary tongue lesion,resection of the floor of mouth,segmental mandible resection upon mandibular canal and neck resection.In the control group,17 cases were treated by discontinous operation: Neck dissection and primary tumor dissection were performed separated without resection of mouth floor and mandible.Results The 3 year metastatic rate was 12.50% in the study,and 52.94% in the control group,and the difference was statistically significant (P=0.029).The 3 year survival rate was 93.57% in the study group and 58.82% in the control group.Patients in the study group had significantly higher survival rate than those in the control group (P=0.043).Conclusion Traditional discontinous radical operation for tongue cancer results in high recurrence and metastasis rate by missing the lymphatic drainage of the mouth floor from the tongue.Continous operation can improve the survival by avoiding the missing of the subclinical metastases.