Risk factors for salvage surgery failure in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma

Objectives/Hypothesis Locoregional recurrences of oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) may be diagnosed during follow‐up of surgically treated patients. Nevertheless, few studies have investigated factors that impact salvage surgery failure and the mortality rates of these patients. The objectives were to identify predictive factors of salvage surgery failure and mortality in patients who undergo surgical treatment for recurrent oral cavity SCC and to compare the overall survival rates of these patients with those of patients who undergo only one surgical treatment. Study Design Retrospective cohort study. Methods Forty‐six patients submitted to salvage surgery for local or locoregional recurrence. Results The presence of lymph node metastasis and positive surgical margins at the salvage surgery time were the only independent factors associated with both recurrence rates (hazard ratio [HR]: 5.04 and 2.82, respectively) and mortality (HR: 3.51 and 3.24, respectively). When the overall survival rates of the 199 patients who only underwent one surgical treatment were compared to those of the 46 patients subjected to salvage surgery, a similarity was evident when patients who underwent salvage surgery did not have a new disease recurrence (70.7% vs. 54.7%, respectively; P = .158). Likewise, patients with new recurrences after salvage surgery and patients who received palliative treatment for relapsed disease had similar overall survival rates (0.6% vs. 0.0%, respectively; P = .475). Conclusions The presence of lymph node metastasis at the time of recurrence and positive surgical margins after the salvage surgery were associated with a worse overall survival rate in patients with oral cavity SCC relapse. Level of Evidence 2b. Laryngoscope, 128:1113–1119, 2018