[Clinical picture, therapy and prognosis of orolabial cancer with special reference to regional lymphatic drainage].

Upon classification according to the TNM system, most lip carcinomas fell into low T-categories whereas cancers of the oral cavity fell in high T-categories. The proportion of cases with palpable lymph nodes did not differ between the two sites although the extent of the palpation findings (N-category) did differ. In general differences in clinical behavior between the two locations were more apparent when a complex evaluation of all findings was undertaken. Lymph node metastases were divided into two categories whereby a more differentiated calculation of the frequency of metastasis was possible. The interpretability and accuracy of the palpation findings of regional lymph nodes corresponding to the TNM-classification is rather limited with respect to the occurrence of metastases. Patients with fixed lymph nodes or histologically confirmed or clinically certain metastases have a poor prognosis. The frequency of appearence of temporally-determined recurrences and late metastases as well as the average interval until appearence were essentially the same.