A clinicopathological study of epidermoid carcinoma of the head and neck

Abstract

CERTAIN PERCENTAGE of patients withA head and neck cancers have distant metastases at the time of death.The published reports (Table 1) show that the incidence in autopsy series varies from 10.6% found by Pricelo to 50.0% reported by Willis.12The average incidence of distant metastases in the published reports of autopsy series is 20.6%.TNillis18 found tumor invasion of one of the main cervical veins, usually the internal jugular, in 24 of his 25 patients with distant metastases.During the past several years at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Md., an impression was formed that distant metastases in patients with head and neck cancers were noted more frequently and that the internal jugular vein was rarely involved with tumor.For this reason, the clinical records and pathological slides of 42 consecutive patients dying