Objectives: To review our experience in treating squamous cell carcinoma of the retromolar trigone with primary surgery and to evaluate factors affecting locoregional control and survival.
Design: Retrospective study.
Setting: University hospital.
Patients: The charts of 51 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the retromolar trigone who underwent surgery from October 1993 to March 2006 were reviewed. Ten patients had received prior treatment. Forty-one patients with previously untreated disease underwent primary surgery and were the focus of this study. They included 25 men and 16 women aged 40 to 83 years. Three had T1, 13 had T2, 11 had T3, and 14 had T4 lesions. Twenty-four patients had N0, 7 had N1, 10 had N2, and none had N3 disease. All patients had M0 disease. Two patients had stage I, 8 had stage II, 10 had stage III, and 21 had stage IV disease. Thirty-nine patients underwent neck dissection; nodal metastasis was present in 19 and extracapsular spread in 14. Twelve patients had bone invasion. Twenty-one patients underwent postoperative radiation.