[Cervical lymph node involvement in carcinomas of the mobile tongue in Tunisia. Retrospective study of 135 cases].
OBJECTIVE: To report the profile of histologic cervical nodes involvement associated with mobile tongue squamous cell carcinoma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Our retrospective study concerned patients treated from 1978 to 1998 by cervical neck dissection for mobile tongue carcinoma. RESULTS: A population of 135 patients (90 M/45 F, sex-ratio 2) with a 53.5 mean age (19 to 75) is analyzed. Clinical palpable nodes were present in 68 cases (50%) mainly submental-submaxillar (54). Histologic examination showed a node involvement in 54 cases without (32 cases) or with capsular rupture (22 cases) mainly in the jugulo-carotidian chain (46/54). Among the 67 clinically N0 patients collected after 1990, 22 patients (33%) exhibited an histological involvement vs 32/68 (47%) for the group presenting palpable cervical nodes for the whole period. Histologic node involvement seemed to be linked to the clinical status, node size and TNM stage. CONCLUSION: Cervical lymph node treatment needs to be systematic in mobile tongue carcinoma. The probability of histologic involvement is linked to the loco-regional extent of disease and influences the prognosis. In N0 patients, neck dissection is required because of the frequency of histological involvement, particularly when loss to follow-up may be expected.