Selective lateral neck dissection for laryngeal cancer with limited metastatic disease: is it indicated?

The most important prognostic factor in cancer of the larynx is the presence of cervical metastatic disease, which is the most common type of recurrence in such patients. Because micrometastases cannot be detected pre-operatively at present, selective lateral neck dissection is increasingly recommended as the standard treatment for patients with a clinically negative neck in order to reduce the recurrence rate. In cases of N+ disease, selective lateral neck dissection can be as valid as modified radical neck dissection, providing patients have only limited, occult metastatic disease.