The Influence of Tumour Type, Persistent Precancerous Lesions and Lymph Node Involvement on the Results of Radiotherapy in Oral Cancers

A series of 172 cases of oral cancer who had serial biopsies taken during a radical course of radiotherapy is reviewed. It was found that: (1) a prognosis based on early histological changes induced by radiation is in very good agreement with the clinical results of the initial treatment. (2) patients with differentiated tumours had a significantly higher five-year survival rate than those with anaplastic carcinomata; (3) lymph node involvement and persistence of precancerous lesions occurred less frequently in differentiated than in anaplastic cancers; (4) a higher percentage of patients with persistent precancer than of those without this lesion died ultimately of cancer but after a longer survival period than did patients with refractory tumours; (5) lymph node involvement did not affect the survival rate significantly in cases receiving equal radiation treatment at primary and secondary sites; (6) cancer persisted in the primary (with and without tumour in the nodes) in 85 per cent, but in the nodes (with and without tumour in the primary) in 58 per cent of patients dying with cancer.