(0637) Does Lymph Node Yield in Salvage Neck Dissection Affect Survival in Recurrent Oral/Oropharyngeal Cancer

Introduction: It has been shown that in neck dissections for patients with oral/oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma a lymph node yield of 18 nodes or greater positively affects long term survival. However, there are no current studies examining if survival is affected by lymph node yield in salvage neck dissection for this population. The goal of this study is to determine if lymph node yield in salvage neck dissection of oral/oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma affects survival.

Methods: This is a retrospective cohort review of patients that underwent a salvage neck dissection at Loyola University Medical Center within the otolaryngology department from January 2012-December 2022. Patient variables were collected with a focus on lymph node yield and overall survival as well as recurrence free survival.

Results: In our study the average lymph node yield was 17.3. Current preliminary data shows that there is no significant difference in recurrence rates or survival based on lymph node yield; however, there is a trend showing that higher lymph node yield is associated with worse overall survival. Patients with less than average nodal yield had a mean overall survival of 734 months, whereas those with higher than average yield had a mean overall survival of 175 months. Further data collection and analysis is ongoing.

Conclusions: Our study shows that lymph node yield has no effect on survival in patients undergoing salvage neck dissection who have oral/oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Our hope is that with further analysis, this study could influence a surgical standard of lymph node yield in patients undergoing a salvage neck dissection as well as provide prognostic value to patients.