Efficacy of Clinical Palpation to Detect Cervical Lymph Node Metastasis of Oropharyngeal Cancer

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Before excision of the primary tumor in oropharyngealcancer, a decision
must be made to treat the cervical lymph nodes (LN) or not. The study aimed to assess the role of clinical
palpation (CP) for preoperative detection of LN metastasis.
Methods: Twenty patients withoropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), managed by excision of the
primary tumor andneck dissection. The histopathological examination results compared to the preoperative
assessment of the nodes by CP.
Results: There were 20 patients involved, 11 males and nine females. The mean age was 54.5 years. Twenty
neck dissections were performed; there was 14 LN metastasis as proved by histopathological examination.
On CP, true positive was 12, false negative was two, true negative was two and false positive was four.
Conclusion: Clinical palpation performed preoperatively is highly advised as it has high diagnostic
capabilities to reach a decision to do neck dissection or not.