Distant metastases in epidermoid cell carcinoma of the head and neck

Abstract

The pattern of metastases in patients who died of epidermoid cancer of the head and neck area, between 1954 and 1967, at the Veterans Administration Research Hospital, Chicago, was studied. One hundred fifty-three patients died of epidermoid cancer of the head and neck; metastases below the clavicles were found in 46.7% of the patients. Fourteen patients, 9.1%, died of a second primary cancer; the lung and esophagus were the most common sites. Patients with distant metastases lived, on the average, 3 months longer from time of diagnosis to death than the patients without distal metastases.