The metastatic spread of "head and neck" tumors in men (an autopsy study of 371 cases).

The investigation was performed by using 371 autopsy records collected by the Department of Pathology at Roswell Park Memorial Institute from 1956 till 1967. Only the "head and neck" tumors were taken into consideration. Two hypotheses were tested, i.e. whether metastases diffuse directly from the primary tumor throughout the body or if the metastatic process takes place in steps, requiring, in other words, that one or more organs be seeded first, before any generalized metastasis occurs. It appeared that the lungs and the lymphnodes of the neck are the two organs responsible for generalized metastases in the cancers of the "head and neck" area. The importance of the neck and lungs metastases in disseminating the disease was discussed in the text. It appeared that when metastases are present in the lymphnodes of the neck, the cancer is already generalized with and without metastatic deposits in the lungs. However, the absence of metastases in the neck is no guarantee that the disease is still localized to the "head and neck" area.