Intraparotid node metastasis affects the long-term survival of patients with resectable recurrent parotid gland carcinoma.

PURPOSE

The recurrence rate of parotid gland cancer is high, but research on the prognosis of recurrent parotid gland cancer (RPC) is relatively limited. We aim to determine the potential prognosis factors of RPC.

STUDY DESIGN

Retrospective cohort analysis.

SETTING

Tertiary cancer center.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective review from 2012 to 2021 on RPC patients treated at the China National Cancer Center (CNCC). To analyze the impact of various variables on overall survival (OS) after recurrence, a univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard model was employed.

RESULTS

A total of 50/218 (23.0%) patients diagnosed with RPC and underwent surgery. The 5-year OS of all RPC patients in this cohort was 61.9%. 5 of 50 patients (10%) exhibited intraparotid node (IPN) metastasis. By univariate and multivariate analyses, we found that IPN metastasis was one of the prognostic factors of OS (p = 0.039) in RPC patients. The presence of IPN metastasis was also related to poor survival in individuals with negative cervical lymph nodes (CN0) (p = 0.011). In terms of the influence of surgical margins on prognosis, our findings revealed that RPC patients with negative margins exhibited a higher survival result than those with positive margins (p = 0.002).

CONCLUSION

According to this study, IPN metastasis indicate a high incidence of mortality in recurrent parotid cancer patients. Particularly, in CN0 patients, the presence of IPN metastasis was associated with poor survival in CN0 patients.