Open cervical lymph node biopsy for head and neck cancers: any benefit?

BACKGROUND Most patients with head and neck cancers in our environment present late and usually first to the general surgeons whose practice is to subject these patients to open cervical lymph node biopsy without a prior examination under anesthesia and endoscopic biopsy from the primary tumor site in order to obtain a histological diagnosis. This paper presents the influence of open cervical lymph node biopsy on the clinical outcome of patients with head and neck cancers in our environment. METHODS This is a ten-year retrospective review of patients with head and neck cancers in the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Jos, Nigeria. RESULTS Eighty nine patients aged between 23 and 78 years had head and neck cancers with 38/89 (42.7%) patients having cervical lymphadenopathy at presentation and these initially presented to the general surgeons. Twenty six (68.4%) patients had open cervical lymph node biopsy and 12/38 (31.6%) patients had FNAB. Eleven (28.9%) patients presented to the otolaryngology unit 6 months after they presented to the general surgeons and 27 (71.1%) patients beyond 6 months. Nine deaths were recorded. Ten patients were lost to follow-up. CONCLUSION All patients with head and neck lymphadenopathy who present to any physician for diagnostic examination should undergo formal ENT staging and FNAB to avoid the problems of tumor spread and the reduction in consequent prognosis.