Purpose: Prerequisite for lymphoscintigraphy-guided sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy in head and neck cancer patients has been a previously untreated primary tumor to avoid disturbance of the lymphatic flow. We evaluated the feasibility in a multimodality treatment approach to oral and oropharyngeal cancer comprising presurgical intra-arterial chemotherapy of the primary tumor.
Patients and methods: In a prospective study of 35 consecutive patients with primary oral and anterior oropharyngeal cancer T1-4N0 treated with superselective intra-arterial chemotherapy with high-dose cisplatin, SLN scintigraphy was performed on the day of surgery, including gamma camera imaging before and hand-held gamma probe identification of the SLN during surgery. SLN biopsy was performed in 50 neck sides, followed by radical resection of the primary in the same session. Elective neck dissection was not carried out. The pattern of lymphatic drainage was recorded and compared with the literature on well-known patterns found in lymphographic studies and metastatic disease in neck dissection specimens of patients without presurgical treatment.
Results: Drainage patterns of SLN related to different primary locations mapped the mentioned comparison patterns. SLN drainage patterns gave strong evidence that there are SLN in levels 3 and 4 with direct drainage from the primary. After a median observation time of 24 months, no patients had a neck relapse.
Conclusions: The results suggest that intra-arterial chemotherapy of the primary tumor does not significantly alter lymphatic drainage and that SLN biopsy following intra-arterial chemotherapy is feasible and offers valid results comparable to those obtained from patients without presurgical treatment.