Survival and clinical outcomes of salvage surgery in recurrent oral cavity cancer: a single institutional experience

Background: Oral cavity is the most common site of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in India with more than 70% presenting in locally advanced stage. Recurrence in all stages of OCSCC occurs in up to 50% of patients, with most failures being local and/or regional relapses. The present study was done to analyze clinical outcomes of patients undergoing salvage surgery (SS) following recurrent OCSCC. Methods: A retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data of 82 patients with recurrent OCSCC was done in the department of head and neck surgery. Results: At the end of 1 year post SS for OCSCC 62 out of 82 (75.6%) patients were alive without disease. At the end of 2 year after SS 22 out of 45 patients were alive of which 21 were alive without disease and 1 was alive with disease (48.8%). At the end of 3 years, 10 out of 25 of which 9 were alive without disease and 1 patient was alive with disease (40%). Median disease-free survival (DFS) post SS was 13.50 months (0-47 months). DFS and overall survival (OS) post SS showed significantly better results in patients treated with surgery along with RT as primary treatment, patients with late recurrence, patients with early recurrent T stage, patients with free margins at SS and in patients who received adjuvant radiation therapy post SS. Conclusions: Salvage Surgery is one of the best treatment options for recurrent OCSCC with acceptable survival rates.