Results of radiation therapy in oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Between 1967 and 1976, 153 patients with previously untreated squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity received radiation therapy, either interstitial irradiation or external beam therapy (usually 60Co). Five-year survival rates without evidence of disease were 90 per cent in stage I, 50 per cent in stage II, 21.3 per cent in stage III, and 2.3 per cent in stage IV. Thirty-one patients with clinically non-metastatic neck nodes not prophylactically irradiated had a high incidence of later metastatic neck disease compared with patients who received elective irradiation of the neck.