Description

The presence of lymph node metastases in upper aerodigestive tract squamous cell carcinoma is said to reduce expected patient survival by more than 50%. Therefore accurate assessment of the neck for the presence or absence of metastatic disease should be undertaken before embarking on definitive patient treatment either surgical or by radiotherapy. If the cervical lymph nodes are considered to be involved with metastatic squamous cell carcinoma the optimum treatment is considered to be surgical. It has been hoped that the introduction of Computerised Axial Tomography Imaging (CT scan) would increase the accuracy when determining the involvement of the neck nodes with metastatic disease.

Objective:

Retrospective review of all CT Scans and examination findings under anaesthesia (EUA) to estimate the sensitivity and specificity of CT in determining metastatic carcinoma in cervical lymph nodes. The histological report was used as the gold standard against which radiology CT and EUA/Clinical examination were compared.