Background & objective: Induction chemotherapy is important in comprehensive care of patients with oral tongue squamous cell carcinoma. However, the effect of induction chemotherapy on the long-time effect was not clearly known. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between pathological negativity of primary lesion after induction chemotherapy and long-time effect in tongue squamous cell carcinoma.
Methods: The 3 year survival rate, the 5 year survival rate, survival rate with tumor free, and reasons of treatment failure of 25 patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma which primary lesion was pathologically negative were analyzed retrospectively.
Results: The 3 year survival rate and the 5 year survival rate of the patients which primary lesion (91.75% and 91.66%) was pathologically negative were both higher than the patients with residual tumor (64.52% and 57.0%). The survival rate with tumor free in the former was also higher than that in the latter. The main reasons for treatment failure were local recurrence and/or regional lymph node metastasis/recurrence.
Conclusion: Induction chemotherapy could increase the long-time survival rate of the patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma whose primary lesion was pathologically negative.