Predictors of Extracapsular Extension in Patients With Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck and Outcome Analysis

Introduction Extracapsular extension (ECE) in the lymph nodes for patients with head and neck cancer has been found to be a poor prognostic factor in multiple studies. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the predictive factors for ECE on computer tomography (CT) imaging for patients undergoing surgery and to analyze outcomes. Methods We conducted an Institutional Review Board-approved, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant retrospective review of 82 patients with biopsy-proven squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck who underwent definitive surgery without neoadjuvant chemotherapy or radiation therapy. CT scans were evaluated for the level of involvement, size, and presence or absence of central necrosis. Extracapsular extension in lymph nodes on the postoperative pathology was correlated with the central necrosis in the lymph nodes appreciated on the CT neck with contrast. Survival estimates were evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier test. Results ECE on postoperative pathology was seen in 74.07% of patients who had evidence of central necrosis in lymph nodes on preoperative CT neck compared to 46.43% without CT necrosis (p=0.013). The incidence of ECE is higher in poorly differentiated tumors and also nodal stages >N2c at presentation. Patents with ECE had inferior disease-free and overall survival (OS). Conclusions Our results reveal that patients with necrosis on CT and with moderately to poorly differentiated tumors have a high incidence of extracapsular extension. There was no difference in local control (LC) between the groups of patients, but the OS was inferior in patients with ECE. Predicting extracapsular extension upfront helps to formulate the appropriate treatment. We propose to study additional chemotherapy to improve outcomes in patients with positive extracapsular extension.